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Dessert

Iced Madeira Sauce

A chilled sauce made from boiled sugar syrup, citrus, Madeira wine, and egg whites, suitable for frozen or ice‑cold pudding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Iced Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Boil together one cupful of sugar and one cupful of water for fifteen minutes.

  2. Pour half of the syrup into a small pail with the juice of one large orange, two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, and one-half cupful of Sicily Madeira.

  3. Set the mixture into a freezing container and stir occasionally.

Make the meringue

  1. Let the remaining half of the syrup boil five minutes more.

  2. Beat the boiled half slowly into the beaten whites of two eggs, beating until they begin to stiffen.

Freeze and finish

  1. Set the mixture aside to cool until the frozen mixture is as stiff as can be stirred easily.

  2. Beat in the meringue until ready to use; it may stand for some time.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

201Calories
8 gProtein
6 gFat
32 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)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 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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Whites beaten to a foam give the sauce a light, airy body.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and keeps the frozen texture soft enough to stir.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness.
Orange
Its juice adds fruity acidity and aroma.
Sicily madeira
Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol keeps the mixture from freezing too hard.

The step that matters

Beating the boiled syrup into the egg whites. Pouring the hot syrup slowly while beating cooks and stabilizes the whites into a foam. Pouring too fast can deflate the foam, and over-stiffened whites can turn grainy and collapse when mixed in.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, 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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