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Dessert

Wine Filling

A sweet, pecan‑infused filling made with egg whites, yolks, butter, sugar, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,416 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Wine Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine egg whites and sugar.

  2. Add egg yolks and butter, then mix well.

  3. Cook the mixture over steam until thick.

  4. Stir in the chopped pecans.

Cool

  1. Remove from heat and let cool before using.

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. Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,416 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + pecanstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,280 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Set and thicken the filling as they cook, giving it structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the filling as they cook and add richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the egg mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture.
Chopped pecans
Add crunch and a nutty flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture over steam until thick. Egg proteins thicken with gentle heat but can curdle or scramble if overheated. Cooking slowly over steam and stopping once thick keeps the filling smooth.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, wine):

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Pecansthe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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