Why it works: Wine and strawberry work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 217 recipes. Both carry acetic acid hexyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Combine melted butter, sugar, beaten eggs, and wine in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture together for a few minutes.
Remove from heat and mix in the fresh strawberry juice.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Wine + strawberrytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together217 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + strawberrytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,149 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and body to the sauce.
- Eggs
- Thicken the sauce as their proteins set when gently heated.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Strawberry juice
- Supplies the main strawberry flavor and fruity aroma.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture together for a few minutes.. Egg proteins thicken the sauce as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Keep the heat moderate and stir so the sauce thickens smoothly.
Swap the strawberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Strawberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, wine. 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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