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Sauce

Sauce for Plum Pudding

A sweet sauce made with sugar, butter, egg yolks, wine or brandy, salt, and hot cream or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Sauce for Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Stir in the wine or brandy and salt.

  4. Add the hot cream or milk and beat the mixture well.

  5. Cook over hot water until it thickens.

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 + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps cream with the butter to create a smooth base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Proteins set with gentle heat, thickening the sauce and adding richness.
Wine or brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the sauce.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, loosening the sauce as it thickens.

The step that matters

Cook over hot water until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but can curdle or scramble if the heat is too high. Cooking over hot water rather than direct heat keeps the temperature moderate and the sauce smooth.

“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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