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Sauce

Cafe De Paris, Monte Carlo

A French sauce made with shallot, vinegar, egg yolks, butter, tarragon, and chervil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cafe De Paris, Monte Carlo

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put in a saucepan 1 minced shallot, salt and pepper, crushed pepper, tarragon, chervil.

  2. Add 2 teaspoonsful of vinegar, reduce it until it is dry.

  3. Add 3 yolks of eggs, stir it, throwing in it by degrees 3 tablespoons of fine butter.

  4. Pass your sauce through a sieve, add a pinch of tarragon and chervil, chopping very fine.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

192Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
3 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Tarragon1 tsp dried (0.5g)2

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter to thicken the sauce into a smooth, rich texture.
Butter
Adds richness and body, setting into a silky emulsion with the yolks.
Shallot
Adds a mild aromatic onion flavour as it cooks down with the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour, reduced to concentrate it.

The step that matters

Adding the butter to the yolks. Butter must be added slowly, a little at a time, while stirring. Adding it too fast or with the sauce too hot can cause the yolks to scramble or the emulsion to break and separate.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tarragon, vinegar, egg):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Cucumberfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tarragon, vinegar, 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.

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