Name: Plum Pudding Sauce
Ingredients: ⅓ cup Madeira brandy; 2 tablespoons butter; sugar to taste

Why it works: Brandy and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Plum Pudding Sauce

Ingredients

⅓ cup Madeira brandy
2 tablespoons butter
sugar to taste

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, and half of the Madeira brandy.
Heat on the stove, stirring until the butter and sugar melt.
Add the remaining Madeira brandy and stir to combine.
Pour over the pudding or serve in a sauce bowl.

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.

Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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 fat for a rich mouthfeel and a glossy, smooth finish to the sauce.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and body, and dissolves into the warm liquid to give the sauce its sweetness.
Madeira brandy: Adds aroma and a deep, fortified-wine flavour that complements the pudding.

“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.