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Sauce

Maryland Wine Sauce

A sauce made with brown sugar, wine, butter, and egg yolks, thickened over boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Maryland Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Beat together the yolks, brown sugar, and butter until thoroughly mixed.

  2. Set the mixture over boiling water.

  3. Gradually add the wine, stirring until the sauce is thick and smooth like rich cream.

Serve

  1. Serve 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. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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 and add richness as they set gently over heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and glossy texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like depth of flavor.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma, thinning the sauce as it is stirred in.

The step that matters

Gradually add the wine while stirring. Adding wine slowly and stirring constantly lets the yolks warm evenly and thicken without curdling or scrambling. Pouring it in all at once can break the emulsion and leave the sauce lumpy.

“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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