Name: Plum-pudding Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup Sherry; ⅓ cup Brandy (or Cherry Bounce, or Curaçao); 2 teaspoons pounded lump sugar; ¼ teaspoon grated lemon peel (optional); ½ cup melted butter; Nutmeg (for grating on top)

Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Plum-pudding Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup Sherry
⅓ cup Brandy (or Cherry Bounce, or Curaçao)
2 teaspoons pounded lump sugar
¼ teaspoon grated lemon peel (optional)
½ cup melted butter
Nutmeg (for grating on top)

Directions

Make the sauce

In a bowl, combine the Sherry, Brandy, pounded sugar, and grated lemon peel if using.
Stir in the melted butter until well mixed.

Serve

Grate nutmeg on top 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.

Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sherry: Provides the main liquid and a rich, nutty wine flavour to the sauce.
Brandy: Adds warming alcohol aroma and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Pounded lump sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the sherry and brandy.
Melted butter: Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the sauce.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, brandy, sugar, butter, nutmeg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, brandy, sugar, butter, nutmeg. 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.