Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Victoria Sauce for Sweet Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Beat the egg yolk with the cream in a bowl.
In a saucepan, boil the sugar with a little water until it forms a syrup.
Stir the syrup into the egg mixture and add the Curaçao.
Beat the sauce rapidly over low heat until it thickens.
Serve
Serve when it resembles rich cream.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 yolk
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the sauce.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and, boiled into a syrup, blends in evenly.
- Curaçao
- Adds orange aroma and flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Beat the sauce rapidly over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if it gets too hot, so gentle low heat with constant beating lets it thicken smoothly into a sauce.
“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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