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White Sauce for Poultry

A creamy sauce made with cream, flour, ground mace, nutmeg, salt, and water from boiled poultry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Sauce for Poultry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a cupful of cream, mix two tablespoonfuls of flour until very smooth.

  2. Add a little ground mace, nutmeg, and salt.

  3. Add a cupful of the water you boiled the fowl in.

  4. Put the mixture on the fire, stirring all the time until it boils.

Serve

  1. Pour over the boiled fowl.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

518Calories
14 gProtein
7 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Its starch thickens the sauce as it heats and comes to a boil.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, silky body.

The step that matters

Stirring constantly until it boils. Flour mixed into liquid clumps easily if left still over heat. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed, and the sauce must reach a full boil for the starch granules to swell and thicken it properly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Turmericfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour. 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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