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Dessert

Snow Sauce

A sweet sauce made with butter, sugar, egg yolk, brandy, and whipped egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and brandy 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 ↓

Snow Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolk and brandy, mixing well.

Top and serve

  1. Whip the egg white with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the whipped egg white on top of the sauce.

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 + brandytop 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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the sauce a light, smooth, rich body.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the butter and liquid into a smooth, emulsified sauce.
Brandy
Adds liquid and a distinctive aroma and flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg white to stiff peaks. Egg white proteins unfold and trap air as they whip, forming a foam that holds its shape on top of the sauce. Under-whipped whites will sink into the sauce, while over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy and begin to weep.

“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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