Name: Pudding Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup white wine; ½ cup brandy; ½ ounce powdered sugar; 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind; ¼ teaspoon powdered cinnamon; 1 cup very thick melted butter

Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pudding Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Mix the white wine, brandy, powdered sugar, lemon rind, and cinnamon with the melted butter in a bowl.

Steep and strain the flavoring

Steep apricot, peach, and nectarine kernels in 2 pints of sherry and 1 pint of brandy with lemon rind, mace, and sugar for 14 days.
Strain the mixture and use 2 tablespoons to flavor the sauce when needed.

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.

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.

Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together620 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,832 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, thick body to the sauce.
Brandy: Adds warm aroma and flavor that carries through the sauce.
White wine: Adds liquid and light acidity that balances the rich butter.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the sharp wine and brandy.
Lemon rind: Adds bright citrus aroma to the sauce.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Applefits better
Apricotfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, sugar, cinnamon, butter. 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.