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Matelote Sauce

A savory sauce made with onions, butter, sherry, brown sauce, broth, and optional mushrooms and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Matelote Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a quart-size saucepan, melt the sugar over high heat until it turns brown.

  2. Add the butter and onions, tossing occasionally until the onions are browned.

  3. Pour in the sherry and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the brown sauce and broth, then simmer until the onions are tender.

  5. Skim the sauce well, then add mushrooms if using.

Season and finish

  1. Season with salt and sugar to taste.

  2. For an improvement, stir in essence of anchovies before serving.

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. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + mushroomtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Button onions
Become sweet and tender as they brown and simmer, forming the body of the sauce.
Butter
Carries browning in the pan and adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth when boiled down into the sauce.
Brown sauce
Provides the base body, colour and savoury flavour of the sauce.
Sugar
Caramelises over high heat to add colour and a deeper, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Melting the sugar until it turns brown. Sugar caramelises quickly at high heat, and past a deep amber it turns bitter and can scorch. Watching closely gives colour and flavour without burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, walnut, sherry, sauce, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, walnut, sherry, sauce, mushroom. 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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