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Dessert

Cream Sauce

A sweet sauce made from whipped egg whites, yolk, 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 add it to the whipped egg white.

  3. Gradually stir in the powdered sugar.

  4. Mix in the cream and diluted milk.

  5. Add 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, it traps air and gives the sauce its light, airy body.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and fat, softening the foam and giving the sauce a smoother mouthfeel.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the foam without deflating it.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a creamy, velvety texture.
Milk
Thins the sauce to a pourable consistency while adding a little moisture and dairy flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the powdered sugar. Adding sugar slowly keeps the whipped egg white stable. Dumping it in at once can deflate the foam, leaving the sauce dense and less airy.

“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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