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Italian Sauce

A mushroom-based Italian sauce made with shallots, bay leaf, thyme, salad oil, white wine, veal stock, and Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,476 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Italian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the shallots, mushrooms, bay leaf, thyme, and salad oil in a stew pan.

  2. Fry over medium heat for a few minutes.

  3. Strain off the oil.

  4. Add the white wine and veal stock.

  5. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

  6. Stir in the Espagnole sauce.

  7. Bring to a boil.

  8. Remove the thyme and bay leaf.

  9. Skim while boiling for a few more minutes.

  10. Serve.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  5. Thyme + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,503 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

Shallots
Provide aromatic sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the fat.
Mushrooms
Add earthy umami flavor and body to the sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and bright flavor as it reduces into the sauce.
Veal stock
Contributes savory gelatin and meaty depth that round out the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Forms the rich, thickened brown sauce base that gives the dish its body.

The step that matters

Strain off the oil. Leaving too much fat in the pan makes the finished sauce greasy and can keep it from thickening cleanly, so drain it before adding liquids.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, mushroom, white wine, veal, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, mushroom, white wine, veal, sauce. 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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