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Dessert

Plain Pudding Sauce No. 1

A hot sauce made from sugar, boiling water, butter, cornstarch, and optional egg, flavored with lemon zest and vanilla or other essences.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Plain Pudding Sauce No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine sugar, boiling water, butter, lemon zest, cornstarch, and flavoring in a saucepan.

  2. Dilute the cornstarch with a little cold water, stir it into the boiling water, add the sugar, and stir until the starch becomes clear.

  3. Add the butter and flavoring.

Adjust and finish

  1. If the sauce becomes too thick, dilute it with a little boiling water.

  2. The whipped white of one egg may be added, but is not essential.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
108 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
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the sauce.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells and sets in the hot liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Boiling water
Dissolves the sugar and provides the liquid that the cornstarch thickens.
Egg white
When whipped and added, it lightens the texture of the sauce.

The step that matters

Dilute the cornstarch before adding it to the boiling water. Cornstarch mixed into hot liquid dry or unevenly clumps and won't thicken smoothly. Stirring it into cold water first separates the granules, and the sauce must be stirred until the starch turns clear so it thickens fully.

“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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