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Sauce

Poivrade Sauce for Mushrooms

A peppered sauce made from espagnol sauce, sherry, malt vinegar, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Poivrade Sauce for Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Reduce the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the espagnol sauce, sherry, and malt vinegar.

  2. Let the mixture reduce to its original consistency.

  3. Skim off any impurities.

Season and hold

  1. Add cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

  2. Keep warm in a bain-marie.

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 + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Sherry + malttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Malt + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together365 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Espagnol sauce
Forms the body and savoury base of the sauce, giving it thickness and depth.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a mellow sweetness that rounds out the sauce.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richer base.

The step that matters

Reducing to the original consistency. As liquid evaporates, flavour and saltiness concentrate, and the sauce thickens quickly near the end. Stop when the sauce reaches the intended consistency, or it can turn too thick, salty and intense before seasoning is adjusted.

“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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