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Sauce

Foam Sauce

A light sauce made by whisking sugar, egg, and milk, then simmering with flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Foam Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the sugar and egg together until very light.

  3. Pour the scalded milk into the sugar and egg mixture.

Flavor and set

  1. Add your choice of flavoring.

  2. Set the mixture over the steam of a tea kettle for 15 to 20 minutes.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Egg
Thickens and sets the sauce into a light, delicate foam as it heats.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and, beaten with the egg, helps it become light and airy.
Milk
Adds moisture and a soft, creamy body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Setting over the steam. Egg proteins set gently at moderate heat. If the mixture gets too hot, the egg can curdle or turn grainy instead of forming a smooth, airy foam. Steam heat is gentle, so keep the kettle at a steady simmer and check the sauce as it sets.

“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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