Why it works: Sherry and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,141 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
A Delicious German Pudding-sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Dissolve the sugar in the sherry or Madeira over low heat without boiling.
Stir the mixture until it thickens and becomes frothy.
Serve
Pour it over a sweet boiled 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.
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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Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 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
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the wine to add sweetness and body to the sauce.
- Sherry or madeira
- Provides the liquid base and a rich, aromatic flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Dissolve the sugar without boiling. Heating gently lets the sugar dissolve fully into the wine. Boiling can make the sauce taste harsh from alcohol loss and can cause the sugar to crystallise or the sauce to separate.
“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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