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Dessert

Yellow Sauce

A custard sauce made with egg yolks, corn starch, sugar, butter, sweet milk, vanilla, and orange zest.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Yellow Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg yolks until light.

  2. In a saucepan, combine corn starch and sugar.

Make the sauce

  1. Add sweet milk gradually, stirring constantly.

  2. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring frequently.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter, vanilla, and orange zest.

Serve

  1. 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 yolks
Add richness and help thicken the custard as they set with heat.
Corn starch
Swells in hot liquid to thicken the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and balances the orange flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy finish.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens.
Orange zest
Adds bright citrus aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Starch granules must swell in hot liquid to thicken the sauce. Stirring frequently prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, corn, sugar, butter, milk, vanilla. 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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