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Sauce

Mild Eschalot Sauce

A sauce made from mild onions, veal broth, cream, and marrow, simmered and puréed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,841 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mild Eschalot Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eschalots

  1. Boil half to a whole pint of eschalots until tender (about fifteen minutes), then drain them well.

  2. Mix the eschalots with white sauce or gravy or melted butter, and serve hot.

Make the marrow sauce

  1. Pare one or two half-grown marrows and cut out all the seeds.

  2. Slice the marrows with one ounce of mild onion and place them in a pint of strong veal broth or pale gravy.

  3. Stew the mixture very softly for nearly or quite an hour.

  4. Add salt, cayenne, or white pepper when the mixture is nearly done.

  5. Press the mixture through a fine, clean hair-sieve.

  6. Heat the strained liquid afresh, stirring in about a third of a pint of rich cream when it boils.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce with boiled chickens, stewed or boiled veal, lamb cutlets, or any other delicate meat.

  2. If serving as a purée, add an additional half-pound of marrow and dish with small fried sippets.

  3. For a maigre dish, stew the marrow and onion tender in butter, then dilute with half boiling water and half cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

107Calories
2 gProtein
6 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot in our table0
Waternot 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 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. Onion + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  2. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cream + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,439 recipes
  5. Veal + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Marrows
Cook down to a soft pulp that thickens the sauce and gives it its body.
Veal broth
Supplies the savoury liquid in which the marrow and onion soften and flavour the sauce.
Rich cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished sauce.
Mild onion
Adds a gentle savoury flavour that mellows and sweetens as it stews.
Eschalots (in the method)
Give a mild, savoury flavour and a soft texture as the base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stew the marrow and onion very softly. A low, slow simmer softens the marrow into a smooth pulp without sticking or scorching on the base. A rapid boil can burn the bottom and leave a bitter, stale taste that carries into the sauce.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, veal, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, veal, cream. 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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