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Dessert

Butch Butter

A lemon and wine butter made with egg yolks and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,832 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Butch Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Dissolve isinglass in water with lemon peel.

  2. Add white wine and lemon juice.

  3. Beat in egg yolks until well combined.

  4. Sweeten to taste.

Heat and set

  1. Heat mixture until hot but do not boil.

  2. Strain and pour into molds.

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. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Lemon and sugar 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

Isinglass
Gels as it cools, setting the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the mixture, adding body and a smooth, creamy texture when gently heated.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
White wine
Adds aromatic flavour and acidity, giving the set mixture depth.

The step that matters

Heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken gently at temperatures just below boiling. If the mixture boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture, and the gel may not set evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits less well
  4. Plumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, egg, sugar. 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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