Why it works: Butter and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Wine Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Beat the butter until creamy.
Gradually add the sugar and wine, along with the grated nutmeg.
Continue beating until the mixture is light and white.
Serve
Mould it into a neat form and serve.
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.
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Wine + nutmegtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,356 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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
- Sweet butter
- Provides fat and richness, and when beaten, traps air for a light, creamy body.
- Fine white sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and, beaten with butter, helps it turn light and smooth.
- Wine
- Adds liquid and acidity, giving the sauce its flavour and moistening the butter and sugar.
- Nutmeg
- Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Continue beating until light and white. Beating incorporates air into the butter and sugar, which gives the sauce its light, pale texture. Stopping early leaves it dense and yellowish, and the wine must be added gradually so the mixture does not split or go watery.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Thymefits about as well
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, 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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