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Sauce

Neapolitan Sauce

A rich sauce made with ham, marsala wine, veal, mushrooms, espagnole, tomato, and seasonings.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,108 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Neapolitan Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the reduction

  1. Fry the chopped onion in a saucepan of butter with the ham.

  2. Add the Marsala wine and blond of veal.

  3. Add the thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, clove, and mushroom.

  4. Cook until reduced by half.

Make the sauce base

  1. In another saucepan heat the Espagnole sauce, tomato sauce, and game stock or essence.

  2. Cook until reduced by a third.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the contents of the first saucepan.

  2. Boil the sauce a few minutes.

  3. Pass it through a sieve.

  4. Warm it up in a bain-marie before using.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

463Calories
32 gProtein
27 gFat
21 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushrooms1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Vealnot in our table0
Saucenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  5. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Espagnole sauce
Forms the thick, rich body of the sauce.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and a deeper red colour to the sauce.
Marsala wine
Adds sweetness and aroma as it reduces into the sauce.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the onion base.
Game stock or essence
Contributes concentrated meaty flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until reduced by a third. Reducing concentrates flavour and thickens the sauce as water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves it thin and dilute, while over-reducing can make it too salty or sticky, so judge by its consistency.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, ham, wine, veal, thyme, mushroom):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, ham, wine, veal, thyme, mushroom. 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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