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Espagnole Sauce

A brown sauce made by braising meat and vegetables, then simmering with stock and flour, and strained before serving.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Time15 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Grease the bottom of a stew pan with butter.

  2. Add the meat, peppercorns, mushroom trimmings, tomato, carrot, turnip cut up, onion, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and marjoram.

Braise and simmer

  1. Braise well for 15 minutes with the lid on.

  2. Add the stock and boil gently for 15 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain through a tamis, then remove excess grease.

  2. Cool in an earthenware vessel, and add glaze if desired.

  3. Pass through a sieve before serving.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Tomato + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,597 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,916 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mushroom + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,718 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the base and carries flavour as the vegetables and meat start to cook.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as it softens during braising.
Carrot
Contributes sweetness and body to the flavour base.
Flour
Thickens the sauce slightly so it coats the back of a spoon.
Stock
Provides the liquid that extracts flavour from the braised ingredients.

The step that matters

Braise well with the lid on. Gentle covered cooking draws flavour out of the meat and vegetables without browning or scorching them. Too much heat or steam loss can make the base bitter or cloudy, so it needs steady, low heat in a covered pan.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, veal, mushroom, tomato, carrot, onion, turnip):

  1. Celerybetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal, mushroom, tomato, carrot, onion, turnip. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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