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Brandy Sauce, Cold

A cold sauce made with butter, powdered sugar, brandy, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Brandy Sauce, Cold

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Warm the butter slightly and cream it with the sugar until light.

  2. Add the brandy, cinnamon, and nutmeg; beat well.

  3. Set aside until needed.

Shape and serve

  1. Pour into a mold for a nice shape and serve on a flat dish.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly into the creamed butter.
Brandy or wine
Adds liquid and a sharp, fragrant flavor that cuts the sweetness.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma and flavor.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note that complements the cinnamon.

The step that matters

Cream the butter with the sugar until light. Beating softened butter with sugar traps air in the fat, giving the sauce a light, smooth texture. If the butter is too cold or the mixture is under-beaten, the sauce stays dense and grainy, and if the butter is too warm or melted it loses its structure and becomes greasy.

“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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