Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Allemande Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and stir until smooth.
Pour in the white stock and cream, stirring continuously.
Season with salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and lemon juice.
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolk.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor as the base of the roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter into a roux.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid body of the sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in off the heat.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if the sauce is too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before stirring it in lets the yolk thicken the sauce gently and keeps it smooth.
“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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