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Dessert

English Orange Sauce

A sweet orange sauce made with powdered sugar, sweet cream, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

English Orange Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Put four egg yolks and four ounces of powdered sugar in a sauce pan and stir with a wooden spoon until it becomes a whitish color.

  2. Add one cupful of sweet cream, little by little, beating continually.

  3. Grate in the rind of an orange.

  4. Place the pan on a slow fire and stir well for four minutes, being careful not to let it boil.

Strain and serve

  1. Take it off, strain through a sieve over the pudding and serve very hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

178Calories
7 gProtein
11 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog]. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they heat and give it a rich, smooth body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the yolks for a smooth texture.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the sauce creamy and softer once thickened.

The step that matters

Heating over a slow fire without boiling. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat but curdle and turn grainy if they get too hot or boil. Stirring steadily over low heat keeps the sauce smooth.

“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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