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Dessert

Brandy Sauce

A sweet, creamy sauce flavored with brandy, rum, and nutmeg, made by cooking butter, sugar, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Brandy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar while beating constantly.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks and salt.

  4. Slowly pour in the hot milk or cream and cook in a double boiler until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy and rum.

Finish and serve

  1. Slowly pour this mixture over the beaten egg whites while beating constantly.

  2. Transfer to a sauceboat and sprinkle with nutmeg.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they cook gently, giving it body and a custard-like texture.
Milk or cream
Provides the liquid base and creaminess, thickened by the cooked egg yolks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the alcohol's sharpness.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they lighten the sauce and add airiness.
Brandy
Contributes its characteristic warm, fruity aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the custard over a double boiler. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat; if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or scramble. Cook only until it coats the back of a spoon, and keep the double boiler water below a boil.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, sugar, brandy, egg, rum):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, brandy, egg, rum. 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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