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Dessert

Punch Sauce, for Sweet Puddings

A sweet sauce made with sugar, lemon, sherry or Madeira, brandy, flour, butter, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Punch Sauce, for Sweet Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sugar

  1. Rub the lemon with sugar until the yellow part is removed, then add more sugar to make 2 ounces.

  2. Pour the sherry and brandy over the sugar mixture.

Make the sauce

  1. Mix the flour smoothly with the butter, then gradually add the beaten egg yolks and the flavored sugar.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and whisk over gentle heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

  3. Serve the sauce very hot.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Flour
Stabilises the sauce and helps it thicken without becoming grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, silky mouthfeel and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and draws out the lemon's oils when rubbed into the peel.
Sherry or madeira
Adds fortified wine flavour and a mild acidity and depth.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Whisk over gentle heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set, but high heat or boiling can curdle them into a grainy texture. Gentle, constant whisking keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry, brandy, flour, butter, egg. 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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