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Sauce

Sherry Sauce

A sauce made from egg yolks, sugar, and sherry, thickened by gentle heating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Sherry Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat a pan by greasing it with butter.

  2. In a bowl, beat the yolks of two eggs.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar to the egg yolks and mix well.

Cook the sauce

  1. Place the pan in a larger tin filled with hot water over low heat.

  2. Continue to beat the mixture until it thickens.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in ⅓ cup of sherry.

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. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 gently with heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the sherry.
Sherry
Adds the main flavour and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Beating over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins gently set. If the heat is too high or the mixture sits still, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy. Gentle, constant beating over low heat keeps the sauce 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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