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Cream Sauce

A sweetened cream sauce with vanilla and nutmeg, thickened with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cream Sauce

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the cream slowly in a double boiler, stirring often.

  2. When scalding hot but not boiling, remove from heat.

  3. Stir in the powdered sugar and nutmeg, and mix for three to four minutes.

  4. Add the beaten egg whites and mix thoroughly.

  5. Return to hot water until ready to serve, stirring occasionally.

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.

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.

  1. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cream
Provides the rich base and fat that give the sauce its smooth, creamy body.
Egg whites
Beaten stiff, they add lightness and airy texture to the sauce.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the warm cream, adding sweetness without grittiness.

The step that matters

Keep the cream below boiling. Once the cream is scalding hot, remove it from heat, because boiling can cause the dairy to curdle or scorch and the sauce to lose its smooth texture.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg, vanilla. 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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