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
Make the sauce base
Mix the flour, powdered sugar, and a few grains of salt.
Pour the boiling water over the mixture and let it boil for ten minutes.
Finish the sauce
Cream the butter in a separate bowl and beat the egg lightly.
Add the wine to the hot sauce, then pour it over the egg, butter, and nutmeg.
Beat vigorously until well mixed.
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.
-
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together24,377 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the hot water, giving it body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Powdered sugar
- Provides sweetness and dissolves easily into the hot liquid.
- Wine
- Adds flavor and acidity that brightens the sweet, rich sauce.
The step that matters
Boil the flour and sugar mixture for ten minutes. Boiling cooks the raw starch in the flour so the sauce thickens fully and loses its floury taste. Stopping early can leave the sauce thin and pasty.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, 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.
More wine sauce recipes
You might also like
Caper Sauce180 recipes
Brown Sauce141 recipes
Dutch Sauce74 recipes
Curry Sauce59 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.