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Sauce

Dutch Sauce

A sauce of melted butter, eggs, lemon juice, and a blend of herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Illustration of Dutch SauceIllustration

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,225 recipes mention both. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: flour, fish

Directions

  1. Make half a pint of melted butter and put it with the yolks of four or five eggs into a stew-pan.

  2. Stand it in a saucepan of hot water, and whisk it well over the fire till it thickens. Do not let it boil, as it will curdle and be spoilt.

  3. Season to taste with salt and cayenne.

  4. At the last, stir in two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice.

By Landmarks Club. 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. See the original page.

The picture is an illustration, not a photo of this recipe · Contact us to use it

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Marjoram + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  5. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the butter into a smooth, emulsified sauce as they set with gentle heat.
Butter
Provides richness and a silky body to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and egg base.

The step that matters

Whisk over gentle heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken the butter only while they are gently heated. If the sauce boils, the yolks scramble and curdle, so it must be kept warm over hot water and whisked continuously.

Flavor stand-ins for the winter savory

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, butter, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, pepper):

  1. Sagebetter flavor fit
  2. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  3. Oreganoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Winter savorythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, butter, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, pepper. 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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