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Sauce

Cream Sauce

A sauce made with cream, mace, nutmeg, and drawn butter, served with boiled fowl.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cream Sauce

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the drawn butter and cream.

  2. Add mace and nutmeg to flavor.

  3. Stir well and heat gently until warmed through.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled fowl.

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.

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.

  1. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth, velvety texture.
Drawn butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a smooth, glossy texture.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic flavor to the sauce.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the butter and cream.

The step that matters

Heat gently until warmed through. Cream and butter can separate or scorch if overheated, so gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and cohesive.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, nutmeg, butter. 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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