Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Hot Fruit Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fruit sauce
Mix the cornstarch with a little cold water until smooth.
Stir the mixture into the fruit and sugar in a saucepan.
Boil for 5 to 10 minutes, then mash and strain the sauce.
Make the butter sauce
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and gradually add the powdered sugar.
Beat in the wine, then add the cream just before serving.
Alternatively, combine the cream and wine, and cook over hot water until smooth and creamy, without melting the butter.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Fruit or berries
- Provides the main flavour and body of the sauce once cooked and strained.
- Cornstarch or flour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a smooth, pourable body.
- Butter
- Creamed with powdered sugar to give the topping a rich, smooth texture.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves easily into creamed butter, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a softer, creamier texture to the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Cooking the cornstarch-thickened fruit. Starch thickens only when it is heated to a boil and held there, so the sauce must be boiled long enough to lose its raw, cloudy taste and reach full thickness.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.