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Sauce

Richelieu Sauce

A sauce made with sugar, boiling water, arrowroot, kirsch, shredded almonds, and candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 179 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Richelieu Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Put one cupful of sugar into a saucepan with one cupful of boiling water.

  2. Let it boil five minutes.

Thicken and flavor

  1. Add one teaspoonful of arrowroot moistened with a little water, and cook until clear. Remove from fire.

  2. Flavor with one tablespoonful of kirsch.

  3. Add two tablespoonfuls of shredded almonds and candied cherries cut into small pieces.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

56Calories
0 gProtein
1 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 4 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Waternot in our table0
Arrowrootnot 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 Mary Ronald. 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. Arrowroot + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + arrowroottop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the syrup.
Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid as it heats and turns it clear and glossy.
Kirsch
Adds a distinct cherry-like aroma and flavor.
Shredded almonds
Adds texture and a light crunch to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the arrowroot until clear. Arrowroot must be moistened in cold water before it goes in, or it clumps. It thickens as it heats, and it can thin out if overcooked, so it should be cooked only until the sauce turns clear and then removed from the heat.

“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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