Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
A Very Good and Useful White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a stewpan, heat 1 quart of white sauce over medium heat, stirring continually until reduced to one-third.
In a bowl, whisk 2 egg yolks, then gradually add the reduced sauce while stirring.
Return the mixture to the stewpan and bring to a boil for a few minutes.
Add 1 pint of boiling milk to achieve the desired thickness, which should coat the back of a spoon.
Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a basin and stir occasionally until cool.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sauce + milktop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,895 recipes
Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the sauce through heat-set proteins and add richness.
- White sauce
- Forms the base that is reduced to concentrate its flavour and body.
- Milk
- Loosens the reduced sauce and adjusts it to the desired thickness.
The step that matters
Bringing the egg yolk mixture to a boil. Egg yolks thicken by heat-setting their proteins, but if the mixture boils too hard or too long after tempering, the yolks can curdle and turn grainy. Stir constantly and only boil briefly.
“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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