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Cobalt Foam Sauce

A sauce made from boiling water, sugar, butter, cornstarch, vinegar, and beaten egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cobalt Foam Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine boiling water and sugar in a saucepan, then stir until dissolved.

  2. Add butter and cornstarch, then mix well until smooth.

  3. Stir in vinegar and bring to a gentle boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat.

  2. Gradually whisk in the beaten egg.

  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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 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. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and dissolves into the liquid to form the sauce's base.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce as it heats and its starch swells in the liquid.
Egg
Adds body and richness when gently whisked into the hot sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.

The step that matters

Gradually whisk in the beaten egg. Adding the egg slowly while whisking spreads its heat evenly through the sauce. Dumping it in at once can cook the egg in lumps and leave the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

“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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