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Sauce

Royal Sauce, for Fish

A sauce made from egg yolks, butter, vinegars, soy sauce, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg, cooked over a double boiler.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Royal Sauce, for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the butter until well combined.

  2. Gradually add the elder vinegar, tarragon vinegar, soy sauce, cayenne, and nutmeg.

  3. Pour the mixture into an earthen jar.

Cook and thicken

  1. Place the jar in a small saucepan of boiling water.

  2. Keep the contents boiling, stirring briskly until the sauce thickens and is smooth.

  3. Be careful not to let it curdle; remove from heat as soon as it thickens.

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 + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + tarragontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the butter and set into a thick, smooth sauce as they heat.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Elder vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich yolk and butter.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a herbal aroma that complements the richness.

The step that matters

Remove from heat as soon as it thickens. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but overheating causes the proteins to tighten and separate, so the sauce curdles and turns grainy. Stirring briskly and stopping at the first thickening keeps it smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, vinegar, tarragon, sauce, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, vinegar, tarragon, sauce, pepper. 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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