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Sauce

Tarragon Sauce, for Boiled Fowls

A sauce made with tarragon, white stock, egg white, water, and tarragon vinegar, simmered and strained for boiled fowls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,547 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tarragon Sauce, for Boiled Fowls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the tarragon in a saucepan with the white stock.

  2. Beat the egg white with cold water and tarragon vinegar, then add to the saucepan.

  3. Whisk thoroughly over heat until the broth boils.

Clarify and reduce

  1. Reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.

  2. Allow the sauce to settle for another 15 minutes.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag until clear.

  4. Boil quickly to reduce the sauce until rich and flavorful.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tarragon + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tarragon
Provides the main aroma and herbal flavour of the sauce.
White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the sauce.
Egg white
As it heats, it coagulates and traps cloudy particles, clarifying the broth.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that brightens the tarragon flavour.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after the broth boils. Once the egg white has set, a gentle simmer lets it form a raft that traps impurities. A hard boil breaks up the raft and leaves the sauce cloudy.

“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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