Skip to main content
Dessert

Sauces for Puddings

A collection of sauces for puddings, including liquid, hard, and healthful varieties.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Catharine Esther Beecher (1800–1878) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sauces for Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce base

  1. Mix six tablespoonfuls of sugar, ten tablespoonfuls of water, four tablespoonfuls of butter, two tablespoonfuls of wine, and flavor with nutmeg, lemon, orange peel, or rose water.

  2. Heat the water and sugar very hot.

  3. Stir in the butter until melted, but be careful not to let it boil.

  4. Add the wine and nutmeg just before use.

Make the creamed butter and sugar

  1. Mix two tablespoonfuls of butter and ten tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  2. Work the mixture until white, then add wine or grated lemon peel, and spice to taste.

  3. Mix half as much butter as sugar.

  4. Heat it fifteen minutes in a bowl set in hot water.

  5. Stir until it foams.

  6. Flavor with wine or grated lemon peel.

Make the flour and peel sauce

  1. Boil half a pint of water with some orange or lemon peel, or peach leaves.

  2. Take them out and pour in a thin paste made with two spoonfuls of flour, and boil five minutes.

  3. Add a pint of sugar and let it boil.

  4. Add two spoonfuls of butter, add a glass of wine, and take it up before it boils.

Finish with eggs and lemon

  1. Beat the yolks of three eggs into sugar until sweet.

  2. Add a tea-cup of cream or milk, a little butter, grated peel and juice of two lemons.

  3. If lemons not available, use dried lemon peel and a little tartaric acid.

  4. Use cider instead of wine if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

733Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
114 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 Catharine Esther Beecher (1800–1878). 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Butter
Melts into the sauce to give it richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when worked with butter, helps create a light, creamy texture.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce and add richness as they set gently with heat.
Flour
Thickens the boiled paste so the sauce holds body.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweetness of the sauce.
Lemons
Supply acidity and aromatic oil from the peel and juice for brightness.

The step that matters

Stir in the butter until melted, but be careful not to let it boil.. Butter can separate and turn greasy when overheated, and boiling can curdle egg-enriched or cream-based sauces, so gentle heat keeps the emulsion smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

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

More pudding sauce recipes

Plum 71German 18Plain 16Sweet 16Cabinet 10Cottage 10 See all 364 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes