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Sauce

Madeira Sauce

A sauce made from egg yolks, sugar, and Madeira wine, thickened over low heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, sugar, and Madeira wine.

  2. Beat the mixture over low heat with an egg beater until thick and frothy.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Sugar + madeira winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + madeira winetop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together445 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it body and richness.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the yolks while they are beaten over heat.
Madeira wine
Contributes its distinctive fortified-wine flavour and acidity, and thins the mixture.

The step that matters

Beat over low heat. Egg yolks scramble if they get too hot, so gentle low heat while beating lets them thicken into a smooth, frothy sauce.

“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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