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Sauce

Piquante Sauce

A sauce made with shallots, gherkins, capers, vinegar, thyme, bay leaf, mignonette pepper, Espagnole sauce, and blond of veal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Piquante Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a small saucepan, combine shallots, gherkins, capers, vinegar, thyme, bay leaf, and mignonette pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil and reduce the vinegar to a third of its original quantity.

  3. Add the finished Espagnole sauce and blond of veal.

  4. Simmer gently, skimming off any impurities, and remove thyme and bay leaf.

  5. Pour the sauce into a bain-marie for use.

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. Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Capers + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Capers + saucetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

French vinegar
Its acidity is concentrated by reduction, giving the sauce its sharp, piquant character.
Shallots
Provide a mild aromatic sweetness and savoury base as they soften in the reduction.
Espagnole sauce
Supplies the body and thickness of the sauce as the base for the finished dish.
Blond of veal
Adds rich savoury depth and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing the vinegar. Vinegar must reduce to about a third of its volume so its acidity concentrates and the flavour stays sharp rather than thin. Under-reducing leaves the sauce weak and watery once the Espagnole and veal are added.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, capers, vinegar, pepper, sauce, veal):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, capers, vinegar, pepper, sauce, veal. 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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