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Sauce

Cockle Sauce

A sauce made with butter, flour, cockle liquor, anchovy or small fish, vinegar, and cockles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cockle Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Mix a good-sized piece of butter with plenty of flour.

  2. Melt the mixture with some of the liquor from the cockles.

  3. Add a spoonful of anchovy or a small fish, dissolved in the mixture.

  4. Stir in a little vinegar.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cockles and shake for two to three minutes.

  2. Serve in boats.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Flour + anchovytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,753 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Anchovy + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Forms the fat base that carries flavour and, with flour, thickens the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquor into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Cockle liquor
Adds liquid and a concentrated briny seafood flavour.
Anchovy or small fish
Adds savoury depth that rounds out the seafood flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens and brightens the rich sauce.
Cockles
Main ingredient, providing the sauce's seafood flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Add the cockles and shake for two to three minutes. Cockles toughen quickly when overcooked, so a short, gentle heat in the sauce keeps them tender and juicy.

“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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