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Brain Sauce

A sauce made from boiled brains, seasoned with butter, sage, cloves, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Brain Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Soak the brains in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the membrane and ensure they are clean and free of blood-filled veins.

Cook and mash

  1. Place the brains in cheesecloth, tie it, and stew in enough water to cover for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the cloth, drain the brains, and mash them with a strong spoon.

  3. Gradually add the reserved boiling water to avoid lumps.

Season and finish

  1. Season with salt, pepper, butter, sage, cloves, and parsley.

  2. Simmer the sauce gently while preparing the head.

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. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  4. Sage + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Brains
Form the body of the sauce, giving it a soft, smooth, rich texture when mashed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and smoothing the sauce.
Sage
Contributes a savoury, herbal aroma that complements the rich brains.
Powdered cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes to the sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually add the reserved boiling water. Adding liquid slowly while mashing lets the brains absorb it evenly. Pouring it in all at once can leave lumps that are hard to smooth out.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, sage, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sage, parsley. 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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