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Dessert

Sauce for Fig Pudding

A light, airy sauce made from egg yolks, butter, powdered sugar, brandy, and folded egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,127 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Sauce for Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the yolk base

  1. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs.

  2. Beat the yolks in a bowl.

  3. Add the softened butter to the yolks, then add powdered sugar to taste.

  4. Mix the yolk mixture well, then stir in the brandy and combine the mixture thoroughly.

Finish the sauce

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.

  3. Whip the combined mixture for 20 minutes until fluffy.

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 + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 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. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter to give the sauce a smooth body.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy lightness to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and mouthfeel.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the sauce and dissolves smoothly without graininess.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, sharp note that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Overmixing or stirring vigorously knocks air out of the whipped whites, so the sauce loses its light, fluffy texture. Fold gently with a spatula to keep the air trapped.

“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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