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Puree of Garlic

A smooth garlic puree made by boiling garlic, reducing with butter, seasoning, and adding reduced Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,090 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Puree of Garlic

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the garlic bulbs and parboil them in plenty of lightly salted water until cooked.

  2. Drain the garlic and place it in a saucepan with a piece of butter.

Make the puree

  1. Set the saucepan over medium heat to reduce the moisture.

  2. Season with salt and a pinch of red pepper, then rub through a fine sieve.

  3. Add a few spoonfuls of reduced Espagnole sauce to the puree in the saucepan.

  4. Before serving, add another piece of butter.

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. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Garlic + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Garlic + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,572 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Garlic bulbs
Provide the main flavour and, once cooked and pureed, the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture to the puree.
Reduced espagnole sauce
Adds savoury depth and body to the puree.

The step that matters

Reducing the moisture over medium heat. Garlic holds a lot of water after parboiling. If the puree is not reduced enough, it will be thin and loose, and it may splatter or dilute the flavour. Stirring gently keeps it from catching on the base of the pan.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, sauce. 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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