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Madeira Sauce

A sauce made with tomato, espagnole, truffles, sherry, mushrooms, salt, pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Madeira Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the sauce over boiling water (bain-marie).

  2. Boil the Tomato Sauce and Espagnole together for 5 minutes.

  3. Add salt and pepper if needed, then stir in the mushrooms and truffles.

  4. Once heated, stir in the sherry 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. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Espagnole or brown sauce
Provides a rich, savory body and depth of flavor to the sauce.
Tomato sauce
Adds body, acidity and a bright tomato flavor that balances the richness.
Truffles
Contribute a strong, earthy aroma that gives the sauce its distinctive character.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity that lifts the richer flavors.
Mushrooms
Add savory, umami flavor and a soft, meaty texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the sherry once the sauce is heated. Sherry's aroma and bright acidity are volatile and fade with prolonged heating, so adding it at the end keeps its flavor noticeable in the finished sauce.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, truffle, sherry, pepper, mushroom):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, truffle, sherry, pepper, 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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