Why it works: Butter and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.
Grate a small amount of nutmeg into the mixture.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, heat the water and wine until boiling.
Quickly stir the boiling mixture into the butter and sugar until a frothy sauce forms.
Serve the sauce immediately with any hot pudding.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Wine + nutmegtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,356 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps it beat into a creamy base with the butter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and body, and creams with the sugar to trap air for a light texture.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring the boiling liquid into the butter and sugar. The liquid must be fully boiling and added quickly. Hot liquid melts the butter into the sugar and whips air in, creating the frothy texture; if it cools or is stirred slowly, the sauce may stay flat or separate.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, wine. 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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