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Sauce

Rich Sauce

A buttery, sweet sauce made with sugar, eggs, nutmeg, sherry or Madeira, water, and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and corn work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rich Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the butter mixture

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and nutmeg.

Heat the liquids

  1. Heat the sherry or Madeira until hot but not boiling.

  2. In another saucepan, bring the water to a boil.

Thicken and combine

  1. Stir in the corn starch mixed with a little cold water and cook for a few moments.

  2. Remove from heat and combine the two mixtures.

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. Nutmeg + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,246 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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, creamy body to the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and combines with the butter to form a creamy base.
Eggs
Add richness and body to the sauce.
Corn starch
Thickens the sauce as it cooks in the liquid, giving it a smooth, glossy consistency.
Sherry or madeira
Adds a distinctive wine flavor and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the corn starch mixture. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed in the liquid and cooked for a few moments so its starch granules swell and thicken the sauce. Added in clumps or under-cooked, it leaves lumps and a raw, chalky taste.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, sherry, corn):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, sherry, corn. 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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