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Pudding Sauce

A creamy sauce made with eggs, sugar, milk, butter, cornstarch, and wine or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Pudding Sauce

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pudding Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Beat the eggs well in a bowl, then mix in the powdered sugar.

  2. Pour the boiling milk over the mixture and stir rapidly.

Finish the sauce

  1. In another bowl, cream the butter and egg yolks until light.

  2. Add the cornstarch or arrowroot and mix well.

  3. Gradually add boiling water until the sauce reaches a thick cream consistency.

  4. Flavor with wine or brandy to taste.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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. Milk + arrowroottop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the sauce as they set with heat and add body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter for a smooth texture.
Cornstarch or arrowroot
Thickens the sauce when heated, giving it a glossy body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling milk over the egg mixture. Adding hot liquid too fast or without rapid stirring can scramble the eggs. Stirring quickly while pouring tempers the eggs so the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, 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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