Name: Caper Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint cream dressing; 10 drops Tabasco sauce; 1 bottle capers; 2 sliced hard-boiled eggs

Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Caper Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint cream dressing
10 drops Tabasco sauce
1 bottle capers
2 sliced hard-boiled eggs

Directions

Prepare a rich cream dressing.
Add 10 drops of Tabasco sauce to the dressing.
Incorporate 1 bottle of capers and 2 sliced hard-boiled eggs.
Serve as a relish for mutton, game, or fish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together678 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Capers + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream + caperstop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together282 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream dressing: Forms the creamy base that carries the other flavours and gives the sauce its body.
Capers: Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the cream.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add soft texture and mild richness that thickens the sauce slightly.
Tabasco sauce: Adds a small amount of heat and vinegary sharpness to the dressing.