Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Wine Sauce Fob Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir until the mixture thickens.
Mix in the sugar, salt, and wine until well combined.
Finish with the yolks
Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs and beat the yolks.
Quickly stir the beaten yolks into the sauce.
Keep the sauce over low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens but do not let it boil.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Enrich and thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the wine's flavor.
- Sherry or madeira
- Provides the main liquid and a distinctive wine aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Keep the sauce below boiling once the yolks go in. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the sauce boils they can scramble and curdle, leaving the sauce grainy. Constant stirring over low heat spreads the heat evenly and keeps the yolks smooth.
“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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