Name: Egg Sauce, or White Sauce
Ingredients: two tablespoonfuls of sifted flour; a pint of sweet milk; a dash of white pepper; three cold hard-boiled eggs; salt; white pepper

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Egg Sauce, or White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Mix two tablespoonfuls of sifted flour with half a teacup of warm butter.
Place over the fire a saucepan containing a pint of sweet milk, a saltspoon of salt, and a dash of white pepper.
When the mixture reaches the boiling point, add the butter and flour, stirring briskly until it thickens and becomes like cream.

Add the eggs and serve

Have ready three cold hard-boiled eggs, sliced and chopped.
Add the eggs to the sauce and let them heat through thoroughly.
Serve in a boat.

Notes

If you have plenty of cream, use it and omit the butter.
By omitting the eggs, you have the same as "White Sauce."

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

688Calories

28 gProtein

15 gFat

109 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. 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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Milk + white peppertop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,304 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce as it cooks.
Butter (in the method): Adds richness and fat, and helps the flour blend smoothly into the milk.
Sweet milk: Forms the liquid base that thickens into the sauce.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add body and a soft, rich texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the sauce as it thickens. Once the butter and flour meet the boiling milk, the starch swells and can clump if it is not stirred briskly. Constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the white pepper

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

Nutmegfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Jalapenofits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, 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.

More egg sauce recipes

for Boiled Fish 7 for Fish 7 for Salt Cod 7 Anchovy 5 for Puddings 5 for Boiled Codfish 3 See all 247 →

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Egg Sauce, or White Sauce