Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,099 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Brown Sauce for Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the boiled and pounded liver to the melted butter.
Stir in the egg yolk and flour to thicken the sauce.
Season with ketchup and soy sauce, mixing well.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying the flavour of the sauce.
- Liver
- Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the sauce.
- Egg yolk
- Helps thicken the sauce and gives it a smoother, richer texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce by absorbing liquid as it heats with the butter.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg yolk and flour to thicken the sauce. Adding the egg yolk and flour to hot butter and liver can clump or curdle if not stirred steadily. Constant stirring keeps the starch and egg proteins dispersed so the sauce thickens evenly and stays smooth.
“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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