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Sauce

German Sauce for Puddings

A sauce made from egg yolks, wine or sherry, and sugar, whisked over simmering water until frothy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

German Sauce for Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, white wine or sherry, and sugar.

  2. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and continue whisking until the mixture froths.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + white winetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Provide richness and thicken the sauce as they gently heat and set.
White wine or sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet, rich custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and helps stabilise the whisked foam as it heats.

The step that matters

Whisking over simmering water. Egg yolks thicken at moderate heat but can scramble if they get too hot. Keep the water simmering, not boiling, and keep whisking so the yolks warm evenly and foam without curdling.

“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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