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Sauce

Foaming Sauce

A sauce made by beating egg whites, dissolving sugar in water, adding wine, and folding the mixture together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Foaming Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Melt the sugar in the water and let it boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the wine, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

  3. Egg + winetop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten into a foam, they trap air and give the sauce its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Dissolved into the water, it adds sweetness and helps stabilise the foam.
Wine
Adds aroma and a touch of acidity to balance the sweetness.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. The foam's air bubbles hold the sauce's lightness. Vigorous stirring knocks them out and the sauce turns dense and flat. Serve right away, because the foam gradually collapses as it stands.

“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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