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Espagnole Sauce

A rich brown sauce made with veal, ham, beef, stock, vegetables, herbs, and a roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Espagnole Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock base

  1. Melt 2 ounces of butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the diced onion, veal, ham, and shin of beef to the stewpan.

  3. Pour in ½ pint of stock and stir over a brisk fire for about 15 minutes until it thickens and the meat colors.

  4. Add 2½ pints of stock, bring to a boil, simmer for 3-4 minutes, and skim well.

  5. Add the diced carrot, parsley, thyme, peppercorns, and salt, and boil gently for 40 minutes.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a small saucepan, melt 2 ounces of butter, then stir in 2 ounces of flour to form a smooth thick brown roux.

  2. Gradually add the roux to the sauce, stirring continuously, and simmer for 3-4 minutes until thick and rich.

  3. Strain the sauce carefully and skim off any fat 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the sauce with the butter as a roux, giving body and a smooth texture.
Butter
Carries fat for the roux and adds richness to the finished sauce.
Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the stock, giving the sauce body.
Shin of beef
Adds meaty depth and gelatin to the stock as it simmers.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savory flavor to the stock.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that the meats and vegetables simmer in.

The step that matters

Adding the roux to the sauce. Stirring constantly while adding the roux prevents lumps, because flour clumps when it hits hot liquid without being dispersed. Simmering afterward lets the starch swell and thicken the sauce fully.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, veal, ham, beef, carrot, parsley, thyme):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal, ham, beef, carrot, parsley, thyme. 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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