Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Egg Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
In a bowl, combine the sugar and cream.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Add the mashed berries and mix until well combined.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg whites
- Beaten into stiff foam that lightens the sauce and gives it an airy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps stabilise the beaten egg white foam.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smoother, softer mouthfeel.
- Berries
- Provide fruit flavour, natural acidity and colour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, so the sauce turns dense instead of light.
“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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