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Sauce

Sauce Duxelle

A savory sauce made with shallot, truffle, mushrooms, ham, egg yolks, butter, and brown sauce, finished with parsley and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sauce Duxelle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Fry the chopped shallot.

  3. Add the chopped mushrooms and truffle.

  4. Moisten with the brown sauce.

  5. Stir over low heat until thoroughly hot.

  6. Add the ham and egg yolks.

  7. Cook gently until the eggs are set; do not let it boil.

  8. Stir in the chopped parsley and lemon juice.

  9. Add seasoning if needed.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Truffle + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set and add richness.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour and carries the shallot and mushrooms.
Brown sauce
Supplies the liquid base and savoury body of the sauce.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavour and moisture to the duxelles.
Truffle
Adds a strong aroma that defines the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook gently until the eggs are set; do not let it boil. Egg yolks set and thicken at moderate heat but scramble and curdle if they boil, leaving the sauce grainy and thin.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, truffle, mushroom, egg, butter, sauce, ham):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Red currantfits about as well
  3. Pumpkinfits less well
  4. Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, truffle, mushroom, egg, butter, sauce, ham. 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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