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Sauce

Maple-sugar Sauce

A sauce made by dissolving maple sugar in hot water, simmering, adding butter, and serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Maple-sugar Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Break the maple sugar into small pieces.

  2. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water over low heat.

  3. Let it simmer for a moment, skimming off any impurities.

  4. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Serve

  1. Serve in a sauce boat.

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.

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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Maple sugar
Provides the sweetness and maple flavour that defines the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy texture.
Hot water
Dissolves the sugar into a liquid sauce.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar over low heat. Gentle heat dissolves the sugar fully without scorching it. Sugar that burns turns bitter and dark, and undissolved crystals leave the sauce grainy.

“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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