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Sauce

Bermese Sauce for Fillets of Beef

A sauce made with white sauce, shallots, eggs, tarragon vinegar, plain vinegar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,303 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Bermese Sauce for Fillets of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop 4 shallots.

  2. Separate yolks from 3 eggs.

  3. Measure 1 gill tarragon vinegar and 1 oz butter.

  4. Measure 1 gill plain vinegar and 1 gill white sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. Put both vinegars in a small saucepan and boil.

  2. Add chopped shallots.

  3. Add white sauce and eggs one by one.

  4. Add butter in small pieces.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

122Calories
8 gProtein
5 gFat
11 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
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.

By Hamilton, Margaret. 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. Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Shallot + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,380 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,895 recipes

Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 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

White sauce
Forms the creamy base and gives the sauce its body.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the sauce and help bind it into a smooth emulsion.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and helps emulsify the sauce for a silky texture.
Shallots
Add a mild, sharp onion-like aroma and flavour to the vinegar reduction.
Vinegar (in the method)
Adds acidity, and boiling concentrates its sharp flavour before the sauce is finished.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs one by one. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat and can curdle or scramble if they are added too quickly or get too hot. Adding them one at a time lets each one blend in smoothly and keeps the sauce creamy.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, egg):

  1. Horseradishfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Welsh onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, egg. 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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