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Piquante Sauce

A sauce made from Espagnole sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, gherkin, parsley, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,550 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Piquante Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Simmer the Espagnole sauce and peppercorns until well flavored.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add the chopped gherkin, parsley, and capers.

  4. Reheat before serving.

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. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Vinegar + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Vinegar + caperstop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,453 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 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

Espagnole sauce
Forms the rich brown sauce base that the other flavourings are added to.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
Peppercorns
Infuse the sauce with a sharp, peppery aroma while it simmers.
Gherkin
Contributes a tangy, acidic bite to the finished sauce.
Capers
Add briny, sharp acidity that gives the sauce its piquant character.

The step that matters

Simmer the Espagnole sauce and peppercorns until well flavored.. Simmering lets the peppercorns release their aroma and flavour slowly into the sauce. Stopping too early leaves the sauce flat, while overcooking can make the pepper taste harsh and bitter.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, vinegar, capers):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Dillfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, vinegar, capers. 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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