Why it works: Butter and wine 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 ↓
Extra Nice Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Cream the butter and sugar together until well combined.
Add the eggs and beat until smooth.
Stir in the sherry wine.
Cook and serve
Place the mixture over a pot of boiling water.
Cook for 10 minutes, stirring very often until ready to serve.
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.
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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 + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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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).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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, velvety body to the sauce.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps form a smooth base when creamed with butter.
- Eggs
- Emulsify with the butter and thicken the sauce as they gently heat.
- Sherry wine
- Adds a fragrant, mildly acidic flavour that cuts through the sweetness.
The step that matters
Stirring over the water. Eggs thicken gently as they warm, but if they overheat they can scramble and turn grainy. Stirring often keeps the heat even and the sauce smooth.
“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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