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Sauce

Mince Herb Sauce

A savory sauce made with onions, demi-glaze, broth, and optional herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mince Herb Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, heat the oil and sauté the onions for a few minutes.

  2. Add the demi-glaze and broth or water; bring to a boil and skim off any scum.

  3. If the sauce is too thick and scum does not rise, add ½ cup of broth or water.

  4. Boil and reduce to the desired thickness.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the chopped parsley, mushrooms, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice.

  2. Serve warm, optionally adding a little garlic.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Demi-glaze
Provides the rich, concentrated body and savory depth that forms the base of the sauce.
Onions
Softened by sautéing, they add mild sweetness and aromatic flavor to the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a slightly meaty texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Skim off the scum after the sauce comes to a boil. Scum that rises when the liquid boils is impurities from the stock and demi-glaze; removing it keeps the sauce clear and clean-tasting. Skimming early, before reducing, prevents those impurities from concentrating into the final sauce.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, mushroom, pepper, lemon, garlic):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Oreganofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, mushroom, pepper, lemon, garlic. 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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