Name: Sauce D LA Heine for Boiled Chickens
Ingredients: 1½ ounces blanched almonds; 1 small French roll; ½ pint boiling veal stock or broth; 2 boiled egg yolks; sufficient flour; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sauce D LA Heine for Boiled Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

In a mortar, beat the white part of a dressed fowl with the blanched almonds until smooth.
Mix in the moistened French roll and the yolks of the boiled eggs.
Stir in enough flour to achieve a proper consistency.
Season to taste and pour the sauce boiling hot over the boiled chickens.

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.

Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + eggtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,845 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + flourtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,886 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Blanched almonds: Ground into a smooth paste that gives the sauce body and a rich, nutty flavour.
French roll: Soaked and mashed to thicken the sauce and give it a soft, smooth texture.
Boiled egg yolks: Enrich the sauce with fat and help it hold together smoothly.
Flour: Adjusts the thickness so the sauce reaches a proper consistency.