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Dessert

Foamy Sauce

A light, airy sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, boiling water, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Foamy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix well.

  3. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, add the boiling water and stir well.

  2. Fold in the beaten egg white and beat until foamy.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Creates a rich, fatty base that carries the sugar and flavor.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the butter for a creamy texture.
Egg white
Beaten to a froth, it traps air and makes the sauce light and foamy.
Boiling water
Loosens the mixture and helps it become smooth and pourable.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg white and beat until foamy. Egg white must be gently folded and beaten so it keeps the air it holds. Overmixing or deflating it leaves the sauce dense instead of light and foamy.

“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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