Name: Wine Sauce for Batter Puddings
Ingredients: 1 pint melted butter; ⅔ cup wine; 2 tablespoons powdered sugar; 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

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 for Batter Puddings

Ingredients

1 pint melted butter
⅔ cup wine
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Directions

Prepare the melted butter and remove it from the heat.
Stir in the wine, using about ⅔ cup for 1 pint of melted butter.
Add the powdered sugar and grated nutmeg, mixing well.

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.

Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together24,377 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together23,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Wine + nutmegtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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

Melted butter: Provides richness and a smooth, fatty base for the sauce.
Wine: Adds liquid and a tangy, aromatic flavor to the sauce.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the sauce and dissolves quickly into the warm butter.
Grated nutmeg: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the sauce.