Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Hard Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar and butter.
Add the hot water to moisten the butter.
Beat the mixture well until smooth.
Store
Store in a cool place.
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Powdered sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, forming the body of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy texture.
- Hot water
- Moistens the butter and sugar so they blend into a smooth mixture.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture well until smooth. Powdered sugar can stay grainy if it is not fully blended with the butter. Thorough beating dissolves the fine sugar into the fat and water, giving an even, smooth texture.
“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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