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Sauce

Madere Sauce

A sauce made with sherry, Espagnole sauce, brown sauce, truffle or mushroom, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and truffle work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 297 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Madere Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the sherry until reduced to half.

  2. Add the Espagnole Sauce and Brown Sauce.

  3. Stir in the sliced truffle or mushroom.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Sherry + truffletop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together297 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Sauce + truffletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,490 recipes
  3. Sherry + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sherry
Boiling it down concentrates its flavor and adds a sharp, acidic brightness to the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Provides the thickened body and rich, savory base that the sauce is built on.
Brown sauce
Adds depth, color and meaty savoriness to the reduction.
Truffle or mushroom
Adds a concentrated earthy aroma and savory character.

The step that matters

Reducing the sherry to half. Boiling concentrates the sherry's flavor and drives off harsh alcohol, so it is a strong base for the sauce. Reducing too far can make it syrupy or bitter, while stopping too early leaves it sharp and thin-tasting.

“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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