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Sauce

Guards Sauce Ior Plum Pudding

A creamed sauce of butter, sugar, ground almonds and brandy, served with plum pudding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Guards Sauce Ior Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat ½ lb. fresh butter to a cream.

  2. Add 4 oz. castor sugar.

  3. Beat in 2 oz. of almonds.

  4. Add ½ glass of brandy, gradually beating all the time.

  5. It can be used when quite firm or in a cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

129Calories
6 gProtein
5 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

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

By Hamilton, Margaret. 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. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  3. Ginger + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,337 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 (in the method)
Creams with the sugar to give the sauce a smooth, rich body.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps the butter cream into a light texture.
Almonds (in the method)
Add body and a nutty flavour to the sauce.
Brandy (in the method)
Adds aroma and flavour; beaten in gradually so it blends smoothly.

The step that matters

Add the brandy gradually. Adding the liquid slowly while beating lets it emulsify into the butter; pouring it in all at once can split or curdle the mixture.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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