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Sauce Vin Blanc- -white- Wine Sauce

A sauce made with dry white wine, mushroom peelings, fish stock, velouté, egg yolks, cream, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,765 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Sauce Vin Blanc- -white- Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce base

  1. Reduce the dry white wine with the mushroom peelings and fish stock in a saucepan.

  2. Add the velouté and continue to reduce the mixture.

Enrich and finish

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and cream.

  2. Strain the reduced mixture and gradually whisk it into the egg yolk mixture.

  3. Return to low heat, stirring until thickened.

  4. Season to taste, then finish by stirring in the butter and lemon juice.

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. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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 and give it a rich, smooth texture as they set gently with heat.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy, silky finish and a rounded mouthfeel.
Velouté
Provides a thick, stable base that gives the sauce body.
Dry white wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth as it reduces into the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds brightness and acidity that balances the richness of the butter and yolks.
Cream
Adds moisture and fat that make the yolk mixture smoother and softer.

The step that matters

Return to low heat, stirring until thickened. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if they get too hot they scramble and turn grainy. Low heat and constant stirring keep the sauce smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, mushroom, fish, egg, cream, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Plumfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, mushroom, fish, egg, cream, butter. 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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