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Sauce

French Dishes

A page of French sauces: a consommé-based brown sauce, Béchamel, a white butter sauce, and Hollandaise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Caron, Pierre, fl. 1886-1899 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

French Dishes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the consommé

  1. Tie together two onions, a few branches of parsley, two cloves, two bay-leaves, and a clove of garlic, adding a little salt and pepper.

  2. Add the tied bundle to one quart of consommé.

  3. When beginning to boil, skim constantly so as to clear the sauce well.

  4. Remove the saucepan to the back of the range and simmer gently two hours.

Make the brown sauce

  1. Melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan on the fire and mix thoroughly with an ounce of flour.

  2. When beginning to colour slightly, add a pint of the liquid in which the meats were boiled.

  3. Strain half a wineglass of the juice of canned mushrooms and add it to the sauce.

  4. Boil the sauce forty-five minutes.

  5. Strain and serve.

Make the milk sauce

  1. Melt an ounce of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add an ounce of flour and mix well together.

  3. Add an onion cut in slices, half an ounce of lean raw ham, and a little salt and pepper.

  4. When beginning to colour slightly, moisten with a pint of milk.

  5. Stir well until boiling, then boil ten minutes longer.

  6. Strain and serve.

Make the lemon sauce

  1. Melt an ounce of butter in a saucepan on the fire.

  2. Add one tablespoonful of flour, a little salt, white pepper, and a little nutmeg, and mix all well together, adding a glass of water.

  3. Stir until boiling.

  4. Add an ounce of butter and the juice of a lemon.

  5. Strain and serve.

  6. Put two ounces of butter in a saucepan with a little salt, nutmeg, and a glass and a quarter of water, and mix all together on

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1022Calories
50 gProtein
36 gFat
122 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Caron, Pierre, fl. 1886-1899. 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. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Consommé
Forms the liquid base that the flavourings are simmered into and the sauce is built on.
Butter
Provides fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel, and carries flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid, giving body.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, giving the sauce a softer, milder body.

The step that matters

Skim constantly as the consommé begins to boil. Heat brings coagulated proteins and fat to the surface as scum. Removing them while the liquid comes up to a boil keeps the consommé clear, and a clear base gives a clear finished sauce.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, garlic, ham, milk, onion, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, garlic, ham, milk, onion, parsley. 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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