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Sauce

Creamy Wine Sauce

A sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, and wine, whisked until smooth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,645 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Creamy Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar until very light.

  3. Slowly mix in the hot wine.

  4. Place the bowl in a basin of hot water and stir for 2 minutes until smooth and foamy.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and when beaten, traps air to give a creamy, light texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and, beaten with the butter, helps it become light and smooth.
Wine
Adds liquid and acidity, giving the sauce its characteristic flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the hot wine slowly. Adding liquid too quickly to the creamed butter and sugar can make the mixture separate or turn grainy. Adding it slowly and stirring keeps the emulsion 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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