Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 43,437 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the base
Combine the egg yolks, sugar, and brandy in a bowl.
Beat the mixture well for a few minutes.
Place the bowl in a saucepan of hot water.
Stir the mixture until it thickens.
Remove the bowl from heat.
Fold and serve
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gently fold the beaten whites into the yolk mixture.
Pour the mixture into glasses and serve.
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.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,437 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Brandy + creamtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Egg + brandytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,330 recipes
Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).
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Sugar + brandytop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together122,252 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken into a custard as they heat, and whites are whipped to add lightness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the eggs.
- Brandy
- Adds a warm, aromatic flavor to the custard.
The step that matters
Stir over hot water until it thickens. Egg yolk proteins set gradually as they warm. Gentle, steady heat and constant stirring thicken the mixture smoothly, while overheating can scramble the yolks into lumps.
“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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