Name: Blonde Fish Sauce
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons white stock; 1 small onion, chopped; 2 mushrooms, chopped; 1 sprig parsley; 1 lemon, thinly sliced; ⅓ cup white wine; 1 cup melted butter; 3 egg yolks, beaten

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Blonde Fish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

In a stewpan, combine 3 tablespoons of white stock with the onion, mushrooms, parsley, lemon, and white wine.
Stew the mixture over low heat for 30 minutes.
Gradually add 1 cup of melted butter and the beaten egg yolks, stirring continuously.
Cook for 4 to 5 minutes without allowing it to boil.
Strain the sauce through a sieve and serve with any kind of fish.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,083 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks: Thicken the butter and wine base into a smooth, emulsified sauce.
Melted butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the butter.
Lemon: Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and egg yolks. Adding butter and yolks too quickly, or letting the sauce boil, can cause the egg to scramble and the emulsion to break, leaving the sauce grainy and oily. Stirring continuously and keeping the heat gentle helps the yolks thicken it evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, parsley, lemon, white wine, butter, egg):

Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, parsley, lemon, white wine, butter, 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Mushroom Soup60 recipes

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Brown Bread461 recipes

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Blonde Fish Sauce