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Sauce

Cream Sauce

A light, sweet cream sauce made with egg whites, yolks, powdered sugar, cream, milk, and rose or vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream Sauce

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Whip the egg white until stiff peaks form.

  2. Beat the egg yolk and then gently fold it into the whipped egg white.

  3. Gradually stir in the powdered sugar until well combined.

  4. Add the cream and milk, mixing until smooth.

  5. Flavor with rose or vanilla extract 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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Egg white
Whipped to stiff peaks to give the sauce an airy, light texture.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and body to the sauce once folded into the whipped white.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the mixture.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Milk
Thins the sauce and adds moisture for a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Fold the yolk into the whipped white. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg white intact. Stirring or beating vigorously would deflate the foam, leaving the sauce dense instead of light.

“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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