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Sauce

Gherkin Sauce

A sauce made from thinly sliced green gherkins, tarragon vinegar, pepper, white sauce, and veal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,399 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gherkin Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sauce

  1. Slice the gherkins very thinly.

  2. Place them in a small saucepan with a little Tarragon vinegar and pepper.

  3. Simmer briskly for a few minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add a small quantity of white sauce and a bit of veal.

  2. Stir the sauce until it boils, then set aside until it clears.

  3. Skim and pour into a dish for use.

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. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Tarragon + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tarragon + vealtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Green gherkins
Provide the sharp, tangy flavour that defines the sauce.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and aromatic tang that brightens the sauce.
White sauce
Forms the creamy base that gives the sauce its body.
Veal
Adds savoury meaty depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until it boils, then set aside until it clears. Boiling a white sauce that contains dairy or starch can cause it to curdle or separate. Stirring keeps the mixture smooth and evenly heated, and resting lets fine particles settle so the sauce looks clear.

“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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