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Dessert

Yellow Sauce

A custard sauce made with milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, rum, gelatin, and candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Yellow Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Put the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Mix the sugar with the cornstarch, then combine with the eggs.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the milk and add the vanilla.

Finish and flavour

  1. Dissolve the gelatine according to package instructions and add it to the mixture.

  2. Stir in the rum and add candied cherries to taste.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together728 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Their proteins set with heat, thickening the custard and giving it body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the milk and eggs.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a smooth custard.
Gelatine
Sets into a gel as it cools, giving the sauce a firmer texture.
Rum
Adds a strong aroma and distinctive flavour to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the milk. Egg proteins set when heated, so they can scramble into lumps if the hot milk is added too quickly or not stirred. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth as it thickens.

“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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