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A sauce made from parboiled onions, butter, sugar, pepper, salt, flour, milk or cream, and optionally Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

On Names

Ingredients

Directions

Make the onion sauce

  1. Mix flour into the onion pulp, add milk or cream, and stir the sauce over heat until it reaches desired consistency.

  2. Parboil onions for a few minutes.

  3. Roughly mince the onions.

  4. Put onions into a saucepan with plenty of butter, a pinch of sugar, pepper, and salt to taste.

  5. Let them cook slowly until they do not take colour.

  6. Stir in a tablespoonful of flour.

  7. When they are quite tender, pass them through a sieve.

  8. Dilute the onion pulp with sufficient milk to make it into a sauce.

  9. Make it hot, and serve.

Add rice and Parmesan

  1. Put parboiled onions, butter, sugar, pepper, and salt into a saucepan.

  2. Add a tablespoonful or two of rice (previously boiled in water for ten minutes).

  3. Let the mixture cook slowly until onions are quite tender.

  4. Add a tablespoonful of grated Parmesan cheese and stir the mixture well.

  5. Pass it through a sieve.

  6. Add as much milk or cream as necessary.

Thicken with egg yolks

  1. Boil a small quantity of mace and roughly-pounded allspice in some water.

  2. Beat up, and strain the yolks of three eggs with about a tumblerful of this water when cold.

  3. Add salt to taste, and about three ounces of fresh butter.

  4. Put this mixture into a bain-marie, and never cease stirring until the sauce thickens.

  5. If it gets too thick, add a few drops of cold water.

  6. Lastly, stir in the juice of a lemon (off the fire).

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

800Calories
30 gProtein
25 gFat
111 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor. 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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells with heat.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat.
Onions (in the method)
Soften during slow cooking, giving the sauce its body and main flavour.
Milk or cream (in the method)
Supplies the liquid that turns the onion pulp into a pourable sauce.
Rice (in the method)
Its starch helps thicken the onion pulp as it breaks down.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk mixture in the bain-marie. Egg yolks thicken only gently. If the mixture gets too hot or stops being stirred, it can curdle or scramble, so constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth.

“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.

More onion sauce recipes

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