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Sweet Sauces

A collection of sweet sauces including vanilla, creamy, caramel, jelly, and sherry varieties.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and sherry work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Sweet Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vanilla butter sauce

  1. Cream half cup butter.

  2. Add gradually one cup sugar and stir until light and creamy.

  3. Add one teaspoon vanilla.

  4. Place corn starch in a saucepan, moisten with a little cold water, pour over it one pint boiling water, cook over fire until clear.

  5. At serving time, stir this hot mixture into the butter and sugar; stir until thoroughly mixed, add vanilla and serve.

Make the sherry cream sauce

  1. Cream two tablespoons butter.

  2. Beat in by degrees one-half cup powdered sugar, two tablespoons thick cream, and two tablespoons sherry.

  3. Beat long and hard.

  4. Just before serving, stand bowl over hot water and beat until sauce looks creamy, but not hot enough to melt butter.

Make the brown sugar sauce

  1. Brown four tablespoons sugar and one tablespoon water, stirring constantly until it browns. Add more hot water.

  2. Mix two cups sugar, two teaspoons flour, and half cup butter together.

  3. Add the syrup and two cups hot water.

  4. Let all boil up together and add a little grated nutmeg.

Make the egg white and jelly sauce

  1. Separate yolks from one egg.

  2. Divide one and one-half cups sugar.

  3. Put half of the sugar with butter and set on stove to brown.

  4. Stir both together and let cook until brown.

  5. Pour in hot water and let cook a little.

  6. To each egg white, put one tablespoon jelly and one tablespoon white sugar.

  7. Beat until very light.

  8. Boil two cups sugar and one pint boiling water.

  9. Add one tablespoon flour dissolved in cold water, half cup sherry, lump of butter, pinch of salt.

  10. Boil until thick and smooth.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

784Calories
20 gProtein
24 gFat
111 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to each sauce.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when browned, a caramel flavour.
Corn starch (in the method)
Thickens the hot water into a clear, smooth sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the sauce and gives it body as it cooks.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a mellow flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the hot starch mixture to the butter and sugar. Starch must be fully cooked until clear before mixing, so the sauce thickens smoothly without a raw, pasty taste.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, vanilla, cream, flour, sherry, egg. 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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