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Dessert

Hard Sauce

A butter and almond sauce flavored with sherry and brandy, served with plum and brown pudding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Hard Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince and pound the sweet and bitter almonds to a smooth paste in a mortar.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the almond paste to the butter and sugar mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the sherry and brandy just before serving.

  2. Serve the hard sauce separately with plum and brown pudding.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh butter
Provides the rich fat base that gives the sauce its body and smooth texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and, creamed with butter, traps air for a light, fluffy texture.
Sweet almonds
Contribute the main nutty flavour and fine texture to the paste.
Bitter almonds
Add a concentrated, aromatic almond flavour that deepens the sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich butter.
Brandy
Adds warm, aromatic alcohol flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the sherry and brandy just before serving. Alcohol added too early can be lost or dull the aroma, and the sauce may thin or separate if handled too long. Adding the spirits last keeps their flavour bright and the butter mixture firm and cool.

“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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