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Sauce

Egg Sauce

A sauce made from beaten egg, sugar, hot water, butter, and lemon juice or wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Egg Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the egg with the sugar until light.

  2. Just before serving, pour the hot water over the mixture.

  3. Add the butter and lemon juice or wine.

  4. Beat the sauce very light before serving.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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
Thickens the sauce as it sets gently in the hot liquid, giving body and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps the beaten egg hold a light, airy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and a glossy finish.
Lemon juice or wine
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot water in just before serving. The egg mixture thickens as heat cooks the egg proteins, so it must be added at the last moment. If it sits too long or the water is too cool, the sauce can thin or stay runny. Beating it light before serving restores the airy texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

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

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Figabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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