Name: Reform Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint half-glaze sauce; ½ pint ordinary Poivrade sauce; ½ ounce gherkins, finely chopped; ½ ounce hard-boiled egg white, finely chopped; 1 ounce salted tongue, finely chopped; 1 ounce truffles, finely chopped; 1 ounce mushrooms, finely chopped

Why it works: Truffle and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Reform Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint half-glaze sauce
½ pint ordinary Poivrade sauce
½ ounce gherkins, finely chopped
½ ounce hard-boiled egg white, finely chopped
1 ounce salted tongue, finely chopped
1 ounce truffles, finely chopped
1 ounce mushrooms, finely chopped

Directions

Make the sauce

In a small saucepan, boil the half-glaze sauce and Poivrade sauce together.

Prepare the garnish

Prepare a garnish by finely chopping the gherkins, hard-boiled egg white, salted tongue, truffles, and mushrooms.

Serve

Serve the sauce with mutton cutlets, labeled 'A la Riforme.'

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.

Truffle + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Egg + truffletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,604 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + mushroomtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + mushroomtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,987 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sauce + truffletop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,490 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Half-glaze sauce: Provides the rich, savory meat-based body that forms the base of the sauce.
Poivrade sauce: Adds a peppery, aromatic flavour and extra body to the sauce base.
Truffles: Contribute a deep, earthy aroma that gives the garnish its distinctive character.
Salted tongue: Adds meaty texture and savoury flavour to the chopped garnish.

“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.