Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Wine Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the butter and flour together.
Stir this mixture into the boiling water.
Add enough sugar to make it sweet.
Let it boil for a few minutes.
Gradually add the beaten egg white.
Stir in the Madeira wine.
Grate nutmeg over the sauce and serve hot.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Enriches the sauce with fat, adding richness and smoothness to the finished texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it heats with the butter and water.
- Egg white
- Adds body and a light, slightly set texture when stirred into the hot sauce.
- Madeira wine
- Adds aroma and a rich, fortified wine flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Gradually add the beaten egg white. Adding egg white slowly into hot liquid helps it disperse evenly instead of clumping or cooking into lumps, keeping the sauce smooth.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg, madeira wine):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Parsleyfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, egg, madeira 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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