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Dessert

Foamy Sauce

A light, frothy sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, egg whites, boiling water, and sherry or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Foamy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and heat until light.

  3. Add one unbeaten egg white and beat again.

  4. Add the remaining egg white and beat until very light.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, add the sherry or vanilla and boiling water.

  2. Stand the bowl over boiling water and stir until frothy.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Butter
Creamed with the sugar to give the sauce a rich, smooth body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the creamed butter.
Egg whites
Beaten in to trap air, producing a light, foamy texture.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites into the butter mixture. Egg whites hold air only when beaten well and added gradually, so the sauce becomes light and foamy. Adding them too quickly or under-beating can leave the sauce dense and flat.

“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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