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Bread Sauce with Onion

A creamy sauce made from bread crumbs, milk, onion, butter, cream, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bread Sauce with Onion

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Put nearly half a pint of fine bread crumbs and the white part of a large mild onion cut into quarters into a very clean saucepan.

  2. Pour three-quarters of a pint of new milk over them.

  3. Boil gently, stirring often, until the onion is tender (40–60 minutes).

  4. Press the mixture through a clean hair-sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Reduce the sauce by quick boiling if it is too thin.

  2. Add salt, grated nutmeg, an ounce of butter, and four spoonfuls of cream.

  3. When the sauce has proper thickness, serve immediately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

358Calories
10 gProtein
26 gFat
24 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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 Eliza Acton. 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Thicken the milk into a smooth, body-rich sauce as they absorb liquid and swell.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the crumbs soak up and the onion simmers in.
Onion
Adds mild savoury flavour as it softens and infuses the milk during gentle simmering.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the sauce's flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Boiling gently and stirring often. Milk scorches and sticks easily on the base of a pan, and crumbs can settle and burn. Gentle heat with frequent stirring keeps the sauce smooth and prevents a scorched taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, butter, cream, nutmeg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, butter, cream, nutmeg. 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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