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Sauce

Eschalot Sauce

A sauce made with shallot, water, vinegar, clove, mace, demi-glaze, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,677 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Eschalot Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the chopped shallot in a napkin and pour water over it; press until dry.

Make the sauce

  1. In a small saucepan, combine the shallot, vinegar, clove, and mace; boil for 2 minutes.

  2. Add the demi-glaze and boil a little longer.

  3. Stir in a pinch of sugar and serve.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Shallot
Adds a mild, sweet onion-like aroma and savoury flavour to the sauce.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the rich demi-glaze.
Demi-glaze
Supplies body, savoury depth and richness as the base of the sauce.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice note.

The step that matters

Boiling after adding the demi-glaze. Boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates flavour and thickness. Boiling too long over-thickens the sauce and can make it overly salty or bitter as it concentrates.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, vinegar, clove, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, vinegar, clove, sugar. 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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