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Sauce

A Rich Sauce

A sweet sauce made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour or corn starch, Madeira or Sherry, water, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Rich Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Combine and cream

  1. Combine one pint water, three tablespoon sful flour or corn starch, half a cupful of butter, two cupsful of sugar, two eggs, half a nutmeg, and half a pint of Madeira or Sherry.

  2. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream.

  3. Add the eggs, well beaten, then the nutmeg.

Heat and thicken

  1. Heat the wine as hot as possible without boiling.

  2. Bring the water to a boil in another vessel.

  3. Stir in the corn starch or flour (rubbed smooth with a little cold water), and cook it well for about two minutes.

Finish

  1. Mix the ingredients well off the fire.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

696Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Waternot in our table0
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.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour or corn starch
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells and sets when cooked in hot liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the sauce.
Eggs
Enrich the sauce and add structure as their proteins set with gentle heat.
Madeira
Adds wine flavour, acidity and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the starch in boiling water. Starch must be rubbed smooth in cold water first so it does not clump, then cooked until it thickens and loses its raw starchy taste. Cooking it only briefly can leave the sauce lumpy or floury.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Jalapenofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, sauce. 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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