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Sauce

Scotch Sauce

A sauce made from anchovies, wine, horseradish, onions, herbs, spices, vinegar, and cochineal, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Scotch Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Steep the anchovies

  1. Chop the anchovies finely and steep them in vinegar for a week in a covered vessel.

  2. Combine the steeped anchovies with the claret or port wine.

Prepare the flavourings

  1. Scrape the horseradish, chop the onions, parsley, and peach leaves.

  2. Add the lemon-thyme, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and black pepper, all slightly pounded.

Simmer and bottle

  1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and add cochineal for color.

  2. Pour in the vinegar and simmer slowly until the anchovy bones dissolve.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve and let it cool before bottling.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Dissolve during simmering to give the sauce its salty, savoury depth.
Claret or port wine
Adds liquid and fruity body that carries the other flavourings.
Horseradish
Provides the sharp, pungent heat that defines the sauce.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aromatic body as they cook down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that steeps the anchovies and preserves the sauce.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until the anchovy bones dissolve. Gentle heat lets the bones soften and break down fully without scorching the liquid. A hard boil can make the sauce taste burnt and leave the bones unsoftened.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, horseradish, onion, parsley, lemon, thyme, nutmeg):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, horseradish, onion, parsley, lemon, thyme, nutmeg. 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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