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Sauce

Epicurean Sauce

A sauce made from Indian soy, walnut ketchup, mushroom ketchup, port wine, white pepper, shallots, cayenne, cloves, and white wine vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot 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 ↓

Epicurean Sauce

1 pint

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine Indian soy, walnut ketchup, mushroom ketchup, port wine, white pepper, shallots, cayenne, and cloves in a jar.

  2. Macerate the mixture for 14 days in a warm place.

  3. Strain the mixture and add enough white wine vinegar to make exactly 1 pint.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Port wine + white winetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Walnut + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together440 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shallots
Add aromatic flavour and a mild savoury sweetness as they steep in the liquid.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes deep savoury umami flavour that forms the base of the sauce.
Walnut ketchup
Adds rich, savoury depth and body to the sauce's overall flavour.
White wine vinegar
Provides acidity that brightens the sauce and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Macerating for 14 days. Long steeping lets the flavours from the spices and shallots slowly extract into the liquid. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and harsh, while the warm spot keeps extraction steady.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, ketchup, mushroom, port wine, shallot, clove, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, ketchup, mushroom, port wine, shallot, clove, white wine. 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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