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Sauce

German Sauce

A sauce made from white wine, lemon juice, egg yolks, and sugar, whisked over simmering water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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German Sauce

Why it works: White wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

German Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Mix

  1. In a jug, combine the white wine and lemon juice.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and sweeten with loaf sugar to taste.

Heat and whisk

  1. Place the jug in a saucepan of boiling water.

  2. Whisk the mixture until it froths, adding more boiling water if needed to maintain temperature.

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.

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.

  1. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 yolks
Thicken the sauce as gentle heat sets them, and add richness and body.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness.
Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the sauce.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the sauce to taste.

The step that matters

Whisking over gentle heat. Egg yolks thicken and foam when heated gently, but too much heat scrambles them into lumps. Keeping the jug in steady, moderate heat, and topping up with boiling water as needed, lets the mixture thicken smoothly and froth evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, egg, sugar. 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.

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