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Sauces for Puddings

A collection of sauces for puddings, including liquid, hard, healthful, and rice sauces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Catharine Esther Beecher · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sauces for Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce base

  1. Heat the water and sugar very hot.

  2. Stir in the butter until it is melted, but be careful not to let it boil.

  3. Add the wine and nutmeg just before it is used.

  4. Work the butter and sugar until white.

  5. Add wine and spice to your taste.

Thicken and finish

  1. Boil half a pint of water with some orange or lemon peel, or peach leaves.

  2. Remove the peels and pour in a thin paste made with two spoonfuls of flour.

  3. Boil five minutes.

  4. Add a pint of brown sugar and let it boil.

  5. Add two spoonfuls of butter and a glass of wine, and take it up before it boils.

  6. Beat the yolks of three eggs into sugar until it is quite sweet.

  7. Add a tea cup of cream, and the grated peel and juice of two lemons.

  8. When lemons cannot be had, use dried lemon peel and a little tartaric acid.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

894Calories
24 gProtein
19 gFat
151 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
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 Catharine Esther Beecher. 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + potatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Yolks enrich the sauce and help it thicken and turn smooth and rich.
Flour
Starch in the thin paste thickens the sauce as it boils.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and helps give the sauce body.
Lemons
Juice and grated peel add acidity and bright lemon aroma.

The step that matters

Take it up before it boils. Once the butter and wine are added, further boiling can thin the sauce, break the emulsion and cause the butter to separate, and the egg yolks can curdle if overheated.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, wine, flour, egg, lemon, nutmeg. 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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