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Sauce

Brandy Sauce

A sweet sauce made with butter, sugar, brandy, rum, eggs, and milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and rum are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Brandy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar while beating constantly.

  3. Add the egg yolks and salt, mixing well.

  4. Slowly pour in the hot milk or cream and cook in a double boiler until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in the brandy and rum.

Finish and serve

  1. Slowly pour this mixture over the beaten egg whites while beating constantly.

  2. Transfer to a sauceboat and sprinkle with nutmeg.

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. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Rum + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together646 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Milk + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together967 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the sauce richness and a smooth body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm milk mixture as they cook, giving the sauce body.
Egg whites
Beaten whites add lightness and an airy, foamy texture to the finished sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the butter cream into a smooth base.
Hot milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness, and cooks with the yolks to thicken the sauce.
Brandy
Adds a distinct spirited aroma and flavor to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated. Gentle, indirect heat lets them thicken smoothly until the sauce coats a spoon.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, brandy, egg, rum. 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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