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Sauce Piquante

A savory sauce made with butter, flour, vegetable stock, cucumber pickle, olives, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyl acetate, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Sauce Piquante

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt a heaping tablespoonful of butter in a skillet and, when it bubbles, stir in a heaping tablespoonful of flour.

  2. Cook until it turns a dark brown, taking care not to let it burn.

  3. Add enough well-seasoned vegetable stock to make the sauce the proper consistency.

  4. Pour into a granite-ware saucepan and add one small cucumber pickle, two olives and a few capers, all chopped very fine.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

26Calories
1 gProtein
1 gFat
5 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Olive1 large (4g)4
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 Henrietta Latham Dwight. 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. Cucumber + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter (in the method)
Melted with flour to form a roux that gives the sauce body and richness.
Flour (in the method)
Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Vegetable stock (in the method)
Liquid that hydrates the roux into a sauce of the desired consistency.
Cucumber pickle
Adds acidity and a sharp, tangy flavour to the sauce.
Olives
Add briny, savoury flavour and texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the roux to dark brown without burning. Cooking flour and butter longer deepens colour and nutty flavour, but past a point the starch scorches and turns bitter. Keep stirring and watch closely as colour darkens.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, pepper. 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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