Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Wine Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Combine the egg yolks, sherry or Madeira, and castor sugar in a jar.
Place the jar in a saucepan of boiling water.
Whisk the mixture until thick, ensuring it does not boil to prevent curdling.
Serve
Serve cold with plum pudding or any other rich pudding.
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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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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 they set gently with heat, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
- Sherry or madeira
- Adds aromatic, fortified wine flavour that lifts the richness of the sauce.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the yolks for a silky texture.
The step that matters
Keep the mixture from boiling. Egg yolks scramble and curdle when overheated, so the sauce must thicken gently over simmering water rather than boiling. Whisking steadily while it heats helps keep the heat even and the texture 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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