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Dessert

Creamy Sauce

A sweet sauce made from butter, powdered sugar, cream, wine or vanilla or lemon, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Creamy Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the base

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar while continuing to beat.

Add flavouring and cream

  1. Add the wine (or vanilla/lemon) gradually.

  2. Add the cream a little at a time.

Smooth over hot water

  1. Place the bowl in a basin of hot water.

  2. Stir until smooth and creamy.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

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

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 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
Provides fat and richness, giving the sauce its creamy body.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves smoothly, softening the texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness for a smooth, spoonable texture.
Wine, vanilla or lemon
Adds aroma and flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Add the cream a little at a time. Butter and cream are emulsions, and adding liquid slowly lets the fat and liquid combine evenly. Adding it all at once can cause the sauce to separate or turn grainy.

“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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