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Sauces for Roast Fowls

A savory sauce made with ham, garlic, onion, and herbs, simmered in gravy and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 148 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sauces for Roast Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a small stewpan, combine the ham, garlic, laurel leaf, and sliced onion.

  2. Add the good gravy and marjoram.

  3. Simmer slowly for 1 hour.

  4. Strain the mixture and serve in a dish or sauce boat.

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. Marjoram + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together148 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + laureltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Laurel + marjoramtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together423 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Good gravy
Forms the liquid base and gives the sauce body and savoury depth.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour that carries into the liquid during simmering.
Sliced onion
Releases sweetness and aromatic flavour as it cooks slowly in the liquid.
Garlic
Contributes a pungent aroma that mellows during slow simmering.
Marjoram
Adds a fragrant herbal aroma to the sauce.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens and balances the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for 1 hour. A gentle simmer lets the ham, onion and herbs release their flavour gradually. A hard boil can reduce the sauce too quickly, concentrate it unevenly and make it cloudy or harsh-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, clove, garlic, laurel, marjoram, tarragon, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, clove, garlic, laurel, marjoram, tarragon, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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