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Chateaubriand Sauce

A sauce made from shallots, thyme, bay leaf, mushroom trimmings, white wine, veal gravy, butter, and tarragon, served with grilled beef fillet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 602 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chateaubriand Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine shallots, thyme, bay leaf, mushroom trimmings, and white wine.

  2. Reduce the wine almost entirely.

  3. Add veal gravy and reduce again until the liquid measures ½ cup.

  4. Strain the mixture through muslin.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and stir in butter and chopped tarragon until melted.

  2. Serve with grilled fillet of beef.

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. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Thyme + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together528 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

White wine
Adds acidity and aroma as it reduces, building the sauce's base flavour.
Veal gravy
Provides the savoury body and depth that the reduced liquid carries.
Butter
Enriches the sauce, giving it a glossy texture and rounder mouthfeel when melted in.
Mushroom trimmings
Contribute earthy, savoury flavour during the reduction.

The step that matters

Reducing the wine and gravy. Reducing concentrates flavour and thickens the liquid by evaporating water. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin and weak, while over-reducing makes it too salty or intense.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, thyme, mushroom, white wine, veal, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Tarragonthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, thyme, mushroom, white wine, veal, 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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