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Dessert

How We Cook in Tennessee

A collection of various sauce recipes from the book How We Cook in Tennessee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first sauce

  1. Combine one cup sugar, half cup butter, one beaten egg, lemon juice and grated rind, and half cup boiling water.

  2. Put mixture in a double boiler.

  3. Thicken over steam.

  4. Beat half cup butter to a cream.

  5. Add gradually one cup sugar, the unbeaten white of one egg, and beat continuously for ten minutes.

  6. Stir in half cup chocolate, one tablespoon sherry, gradually, one teaspoon vanilla.

  7. Heap mixture in a glass dish.

  8. Stand aside until perfectly cold.

  9. Spread between thin slices of bread.

Make the boiled filling

  1. Put one cup sweet milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, one cup sugar in saucepan.

  2. Boil until it begins to thicken.

  3. Take off heat.

  4. Flavor with a spoonful of vanilla.

  5. Let it cool.

  6. Pour one cup sugar, two-thirds pint boiling water, half cup butter into bowl where cake was made.

  7. Return to fire and let boil until thick.

  8. Flavor with lemon.

  9. Pour half pint boiling water, one cup sugar, tablespoon butter into well-beaten yolks.

  10. Whip in beaten white.

  11. Flavor.

Make the syrup and finish

  1. Beat one cup butter and two cups sugar to a cream.

  2. Add one wine glass of wine or brandy, or one teaspoon essence of lemon.

  3. Dissolve two cups loaf sugar in two cups water.

  4. Boil to a thick syrup.

  5. Flavor with ground cinnamon and grated nutmeg.

  6. Pour half pint boiling water, one cup sugar, half cup butter onto well-beaten yolk of one egg.

  7. Whip in well-beaten white.

  8. Flavor with brandy, lemon or vanilla.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

594Calories
16 gProtein
34 gFat
48 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
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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 + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

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 tender, creamy texture when beaten into the mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps thicken it into a syrup or cream as it cooks.
Eggs
Yolks and whites thicken and enrich the filling and give it structure when whipped.
Chocolate
Gives the filling its chocolate flavour and deep colour.
Sweet milk
Provides liquid that cooks down into a thickened, creamy filling.

The step that matters

Beating the butter and sugar to a cream. Beating air into softened butter with sugar creates a light, smooth base. If the butter is too cold or the beating is cut short, the mixture stays dense and grainy rather than fluffy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, chocolate, sherry, vanilla, milk, 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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