Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Sweeten the melted butter.
Add grated lemon peel or nutmeg and white wine.
Heat the mixture until hot but do not boil.
Serve
Serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
-
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Provides richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel that carries the flavours of the sauce.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich butter.
The step that matters
Heat until hot but do not boil. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water. Overheating or boiling can make it separate, leaving a greasy, broken sauce instead of a smooth one.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, white wine):
- Applefits better
- Plumfits better
- Grapefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, white wine. 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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