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Chestnut Sauce for Fowls or Turkey

A sauce made from chestnuts, white stock, lemon peel, cayenne, and cream or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,640 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Chestnut Sauce for Fowls or Turkey

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chestnuts

  1. Peel off the outside skin of the chestnuts and put them into boiling water for a few minutes.

  2. Take off the thin inside peel, put the chestnuts into a saucepan with the white stock and lemon peel, and let them simmer for 1½ hours or until the chestnuts are quite tender.

Finish the sauce

  1. Rub the whole through a hair‑sieve with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add seasoning and the cream; let it just simmer, but not boil, and keep stirring all the time.

  3. If milk is used instead of cream, add a small quantity of thickening as needed.

  4. Serve very hot and quickly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

57Calories
1 gProtein
6 gFat
1 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6

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

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,640 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

Chestnuts (in the method)
Provide the starchy body and mild sweetness that form the sauce base.
White stock
Cooks the chestnuts to tenderness and supplies liquid for a smooth purée.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture, softening the sauce's flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the sauce just below a boil. Once the cream is added, boiling can cause it to separate or curdle, and constant stirring keeps the emulsion smooth and evenly heated.

“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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