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Sauce

Concord Brandy Sauce

A custard-like sauce made with butter, milk, sugar, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Concord Brandy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Transfer to a double boiler and melt over hot water.

  3. Add the milk and beaten egg yolks, stirring constantly until thickened like custard.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and fold in the beaten egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Stir in the brandy and 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps cream the butter into a light base.
Eggs
Thicken the sauce as they cook into a custard and lighten it when whites are folded in.
Milk
Provides liquid that, with the egg yolks, sets into a custard-like texture.
Brandy
Adds a distinct aroma and warm flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and egg yolks over hot water. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the eggs from scrambling. Egg proteins set gradually, so the sauce thickens smoothly like custard instead of curdling 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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