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Sauce

Olive Sauce

A savory sauce made with butter, flour, vegetable stock, olives, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,263 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Olive Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat until it begins to brown.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook until very dark brown, being careful not to burn it.

  3. Add enough vegetable stock to create a thick, cream‑like sauce.

  4. Prepare the olives by boiling them for a few minutes, then remove the stones and add them to the sauce.

  5. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste, then bring to a boil 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. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + olivetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,871 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
Browns in the pan and adds a nutty, rich flavor to the base.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, cream-like sauce as it cooks with the butter.
Olives
Add a briny, savory flavor and distinctive taste to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour until very dark brown. Flour cooked in fat toward dark brown develops deep, roasted flavor, but it scorches quickly and turns bitter. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly so it browns evenly without burning.

“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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