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Sauce

Spanish Sauce

A sweet, nutmeg-flavored sauce made with boiling water, cornstarch, vinegar, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Spanish Sauce

Why it works: Vinegar and sugar 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 ↓

Spanish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine boiling water and cornstarch, stirring until smooth.

  2. Add vinegar, butter, and sugar, and mix well.

  3. Grate in the nutmeg and stir until the sauce thickens.

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.

  1. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  2. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth sauce as it heats.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch into the boiling water. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid without being stirred or dispersed first. Stirring until smooth separates the granules so they thicken evenly rather than forming lumps.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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