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Raspberry Sauce

A sweet raspberry sauce made by dissolving raspberry jelly, thickening with cornstarch, and folding in beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the raspberry jelly and cold water.

  2. Place the saucepan in a larger pan of boiling water over medium heat.

  3. Stir the mixture until the jelly is fully dissolved.

  4. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold water and stir it into the jelly mixture.

  5. Cook until it boils for 2 minutes, then add the sugar.

Add the eggs

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with 1 teaspoon of cold water.

  2. Stir the yolks into the jelly mixture until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.

  4. In another bowl, beat the egg whites with 1 teaspoon of sugar until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gently fold the egg whites into the sauce, one spoonful at a time.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,101 recipes

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

  3. Raspberry + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Raspberry jelly
Provides the main fruit flavour, sweetness and the body of the sauce once melted.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a smooth, glossy texture.
Egg yolks
Add thickening power and richness as their proteins set gently in the warm sauce.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add air and a lighter, softer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the raspberry.

The step that matters

Stirring the yolks in without boiling. Egg yolk proteins set at temperatures just above simmering. If the sauce boils or the yolks are added too hot, they can curdle and leave a grainy texture, so the heat must stay low while they thicken the sauce.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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