Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Dutch Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a small saucepan, combine the egg yolks, butter, salt, and water.
Place the saucepan over low heat and stir until the sauce thickens.
Serve the sauce warm over your dish.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel that carries the flavor.
- Water
- Loosens the mixture so the yolks and butter heat evenly without scrambling.
The step that matters
Stirring over low heat. Egg yolks thicken at gentle temperatures but scramble if overheated. Low heat and constant stirring keep the sauce smooth and prevent 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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