Name: Sweet Sauce
Ingredients: 3 pints of sauce; white sugar to taste; a few drops of essence of lemon, almond, or vanilla; 2 tablespoons of milk or 1 tablespoon of cream

Why it works: Sauce and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sweet Sauce

Ingredients

3 pints of sauce
white sugar to taste
a few drops of essence of lemon, almond, or vanilla
2 tablespoons of milk or 1 tablespoon of cream

Directions

Sweeten 3 pints of sauce with white sugar to taste.
Melt a few drops of essence of lemon, almond, or vanilla in 2 tablespoons of milk or 1 tablespoon of cream.
Add the melted essence mixture to the sweetened sauce.

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.

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.

Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + milktop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

White sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the sauce.
Essence of lemon, almond, or vanilla: Adds the flavour aroma that defines the sauce.
Milk or cream: Adds fat and richness and carries the essence into the sauce.