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Dessert

Liquid Pudding Sauce, No. 3

A creamy sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, brandy, iced milk, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Liquid Pudding Sauce, No. 3

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

  2. Add a piece of ice and beat the mixture hard.

  3. Gradually add the chilled brandy, one teaspoon at a time.

  4. If the sauce is too thick, stir in a little iced milk.

Heat and serve

  1. Transfer the sauce to a sauce boat and place it in a saucepan of cold water.

  2. Heat on the stove and let it boil for 20 minutes.

  3. Serve in the sauce boat and add grated nutmeg 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides richness and a smooth, creamy body when creamed with sugar.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily, giving the sauce a fine, smooth texture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warm flavor that comes through as the sauce is served.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce in a water bath. Butter and sugar form a fragile emulsion that can separate or turn grainy if heated too fiercely. Setting the sauce boat in a saucepan of water keeps the heat gentler and more even, helping the sauce stay smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, brandy, milk. 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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