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Geneveve Sauce, or Sauce Genevoisb

A sauce made with ham, carrot, cloves, mace, herbs, butter, flour, veal gravy, sherry, lemon juice, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓

Geneveve Sauce, or Sauce Genevoisb

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine diced ham, carrot, cloves, mace, lemon-thyme, parsley, and butter in a stewpan.

  2. Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  3. Stir in 1 teaspoon of flour.

  4. Continue simmering for 5 minutes.

  5. Gradually pour in 1 pint of boiling veal gravy.

  6. Let the sauce simmer for nearly 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the sauce into a clean saucepan.

  2. Bring the strained sauce to a boil.

  3. Stir in 1½ cups of sherry or Madeira, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, cayenne, and salt if needed.

  4. Add 1 tablespoon of flour mixed with 2 ounces of butter.

  5. Boil again.

  6. Serve over fish, primarily salmon or trout.

  7. Keep the remainder hot in a tureen.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal gravy
Provides the savoury meaty body that forms the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid, giving body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
Sherry or madeira
Adds fortified wine depth and aroma, with a touch of sweetness and acidity.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the rich ingredients.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour as it simmers into the stock.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and butter paste at the end. Flour thickens only when its starch is heated in liquid, and it must be whisked in fully so it does not form lumps. Boiling again after adding it cooks out the raw flour taste and sets the sauce's body.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, clove, lemon, thyme, parsley, butter. 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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