Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
German Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the yolks of two eggs, sherry, and powdered sugar in a stewpan.
Place the stewpan on the fire and whisk until it thickens to a froth. Be careful not to let the sauce boil, or it will curdle.
Serve the sauce around the pudding.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and aroma, lightly flavouring the sauce.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and dissolves easily into the warm yolks.
The step that matters
Whisk over gentle heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set at moderate heat. If the sauce boils, the proteins tighten too far and separate, so it curdles and loses its smooth texture.
“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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