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Dessert

Foam Sauce

A light sauce made by beating sugar and eggs, heated, folded with egg whites, and finished with butter and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Foam Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the foam

  1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a bowl.

  2. Set the bowl in boiling water and stir until hot.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Serve

  1. In a dish, place a small piece of butter and the brandy.

  2. Pour the sugar and egg mixture over the butter and brandy just before serving.

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. Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken with gentle heat, and beaten whites add lightness and a airy foam texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and body, and helps the beaten yolks hold a smooth, thick texture.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a rounder, mellow flavour.

The step that matters

Set the bowl in boiling water and stir until hot.. Gentle heat from the water bath thickens the egg yolks slowly. If the heat is too intense or the stirring stops, the yolks can scramble and curdle instead of forming a smooth, thick base.

“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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