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Dessert

Brown Sugar Sauce for Same

A sauce made with butter, brown sugar, cream, and vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brown Sugar Sauce for Same

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the cream one tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Flavor the mixture with vanilla extract.

  4. Set the sauce over a tea kettle to keep warm until serving.

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

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Provides fat and richness, and helps the sugar beat into a smooth, creamy base.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like molasses flavor, and helps give the sauce body.
Cream
Adds moisture and loosens the sauce into a smooth, pourable texture.
Vanilla extract
Adds aroma and rounds out the sweetness of the sugar and butter.

The step that matters

Adding the cream slowly. Adding the cream one tablespoon at a time and mixing well after each addition helps the liquid blend fully into the butter and sugar. Dumping it in at once can cause the mixture to separate and turn grainy instead of 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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