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Sauce

Rich Wine Sauce

A creamy sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rich Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix until very light.

  3. Slowly add the hot wine, a little at a time.

Finish

  1. Place the bowl in a basin of hot water and stir for 2 minutes.

  2. The sauce should be smooth and foamy.

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 + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides richness and fat, and when creamed it traps air for a light, smooth texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and body, dissolving into the butter to make the sauce smooth.
Wine
Adds liquid and a fruity, acidic aroma that balances the sweetness and richness.

The step that matters

Adding the hot wine slowly. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water. Adding liquid too quickly can break it, so the sauce turns grainy or separates. Adding the wine a little at a time lets it blend in and keeps the sauce smooth.

“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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