Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Egg Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg and sugar together until well combined.
Add the boiling water just before serving.
Season to taste.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg
- Adds richness and body to the sauce as it is beaten with the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps give it a smooth, thick texture when beaten with the egg.
- Boiling water
- Thins the sauce and gently warms the beaten egg mixture.
The step that matters
Add the boiling water just before serving. Boiling water can partly cook the beaten egg if it sits too long, so adding it at the last moment keeps the sauce smooth and fluid.
“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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