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Espajtol Sauce

A sauce made by browning vegetables in butter, adding flour, then slowly incorporating brown stock and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Espajtol Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the vegetables in butter until well browned.

  2. Add the flour and continue browning.

  3. Gradually pour in the brown stock while stirring constantly.

  4. Add the seasonings and strain.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that cooks the vegetables and carries flavor, helping them brown.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and stock.
Brown stock
Liquid base that gives the sauce its body and savory flavor.
Mushrooms
Release savory flavor and browning compounds that deepen the sauce.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavor as it softens and browns in the butter.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it browns in the butter.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. Cooking the flour in the fat until it browns removes raw starch taste and builds color and nutty flavor. Stirring constantly prevents scorching, and pouring in the stock gradually keeps the sauce smooth rather than lumpy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, celery, pepper, mushroom, flour):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, celery, pepper, mushroom, flour. 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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