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Veloute Sauce

A sauce made with butter, vegetables, flour, chicken stock, and cream, strained before serving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Veloute Sauce

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veloute Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the vegetables and sauté without coloring.

  3. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.

  4. Gradually add the chicken stock and cream, whisking until smooth.

  5. Strain before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 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

Butter
Carries the vegetables and forms the base for the roux, adding richness.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as a roux with the butter, giving it body.
Chicken stock
Provides the liquid that becomes the sauce, adding savory flavor.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the stock and cream to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while whisking keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce becomes smooth instead of lumpy. Cooking the roux briefly before adding liquid also helps remove raw flour taste.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, cream, onion, parsley, butter, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, onion, parsley, butter, flour. 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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