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Cambridge Sauce

A thick anchovy and egg yolk sauce seasoned with mustard, herbs, and oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cambridge Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a mortar, combine the egg yolks, anchovy fillets, capers, tarragon, chervil, chives, and blanched burnet.

  2. Pound the mixture well, then add the English mustard, French mustard, pepper, and salt.

  3. Moisten the mixture with salad oil and tarragon vinegar until it reaches a thick consistency.

Strain and chill

  1. Transfer the sauce to a tammy placed over a dish and rub it through to achieve a smooth texture.

  2. Use a knife to detach any sticky particles from the tammy.

  3. Place the sauce in a small basin and keep it on ice until ready to serve.

Serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in chopped parsley.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Chervil + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Capers + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Capers + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Capers + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and thicken the sauce, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Anchovy fillets
Add savory depth and a salty umami note that rounds out the herbs.
French capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the yolks.
English mustard
Adds sharp heat and helps stabilise the emulsion.
Salad oil
Provides fat and moisture, carrying the flavour and giving a thick, spreadable texture.

The step that matters

Moisten with oil and vinegar gradually. Adding the oil too quickly to the yolk mixture can break the emulsion, so the sauce separates instead of thickening. Adding it slowly while pounding keeps the sauce smooth and thick.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, anchovy, capers, tarragon, chervil, chive, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Beetrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, anchovy, capers, tarragon, chervil, chive, pepper. 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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