Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Pudding Sauces
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Boil sugar and water until thick.
In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks and cornstarch.
Combine the thick mixture with the yolk mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Serve
Serve over pudding.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once boiled with water, a thick syrup that forms the body of the sauce.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they set with heat and add richness to the texture.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the sauce by absorbing liquid and swelling when heated.
- Egg whites
- Folded in whipped to add lightness and airy texture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Combining the thick mixture with the yolk mixture. Adding hot syrup too quickly or without mixing can scramble the egg yolks, leaving lumps instead of a smooth sauce. Blend gradually while stirring to keep it silky.
“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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