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Sauce

Superior Sauce, for Plum Pudding

A rich sauce made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, boiling cream, and brandy for plum pudding.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Superior Sauce, for Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sifted sugar and butter.

  2. Gradually add the boiling cream to the yolk mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a saucepan and heat it over low heat.

  4. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens.

Finish

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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 yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving it body and a rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and balances the richness of the yolks and butter.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy mouthfeel and rich flavor.
Cream
Provides liquid and fat that, with the yolks, form a silky custard-style sauce.
Brandy
Adds aromatic flavor when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir continuously over low heat until the sauce thickens. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures and can curdle or scramble if overheated or left unstirred. Constant stirring over low heat spreads heat evenly, so the sauce thickens smoothly rather than turning grainy.

“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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