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Sauce

Butter Sauce

A butter-based sauce with powdered sugar, starch, and flavorings for boiled fish and cauliflower.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Butter Sauce

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Butter Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the butter base

  1. Stir the butter with a fork to a light cream.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and continue to beat for one or two minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in the boiling hot starch and chosen flavorings with an egg whisk.

Make the cream sauce

  1. Put one pint of cream in a double boiler; when thoroughly heated, add one tablespoonful of butter and one tablespoon of flour, rubbing to a smooth paste.

  2. Let the mixture boil until it thickens; then add salt, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

226Calories
1 gProtein
17 gFat
19 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the sauce.
Cream
Provides the liquid base that gives the sauce its body and richness.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the creamed butter.
Starch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body.

The step that matters

Let the mixture boil until it thickens. Starch and flour only thicken fully once the liquid reaches a boil and the granules swell. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and chalky-tasting.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, butter, sauce, pepper):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, butter, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Drawn 103Melted 103Lemon 58Parsley 30Black 23Brown 13 See all 80 →

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