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Sauce

Foaming Sauce

A sauce made by dissolving sugar in water, boiling, adding wine and beaten egg whites, served immediately.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓

Foaming Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve sugar in a little water.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in wine.

  4. Add beaten egg whites.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Wine + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and body, and helps the sauce hold its foam once it is combined.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma, giving the sauce a bright, lightly tart flavour.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, creating the light, foamy texture of the sauce.

The step that matters

Add beaten egg whites. Egg whites must be beaten to soft, airy peaks and folded in gently once the mixture is hot. Overbeating or deflating them removes the air that gives the sauce its foam.

“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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