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Dessert

White Sauce

A light, frothy sauce made from butter, powdered sugar, egg whites, vanilla or sherry, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the butter with the powdered sugar until creamy.

  2. Add the first egg white and beat well.

  3. Add the second egg white and beat until light and fluffy.

  4. Stir in the vanilla (or sherry).

Heat and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a pan over boiling water.

  2. Stir in the boiling water briskly.

  3. Continue stirring until it froths.

  4. Serve immediately.

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.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the creamed butter for a smooth texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to trap air, giving the sauce a light, fluffy structure.
Boiling water
Heats the mixture and helps it emulsify and froth as it is stirred.

The step that matters

Continue stirring until it froths. Stirring briskly over hot water while adding boiling water heats the egg whites and fat together. Too little agitation or heat leaves the sauce dense rather than frothy, while overheating can curdle the egg proteins.

“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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