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Sauce

German Sauce

A sauce made from egg yolks, sherry, and castor sugar, whisked over low heat until thickened and frothy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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German Sauce

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

German Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the egg yolks, sherry, and castor sugar.

  2. Place the saucepan over low heat and whisk until the mixture thickens and froths.

  3. Do not let the sauce boil, or it will curdle.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce around the pudding to serve.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they gently cook, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
Sherry
Adds liquid and a sharp, aromatic flavour that balances the sweetness.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the yolks and sherry.

The step that matters

Keep the heat low and do not boil. Egg yolks thicken gently at low temperatures. If the sauce boils, the proteins tighten and scramble, so it curdles and loses its smooth texture.

“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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