Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Puree of Sorrel
Ingredients
Directions
Trim the roots from the sorrel and wash it in several waters to remove sand.
Blanch the sorrel in slightly salted water until cooked, then drain and chop finely.
In a saucepan, combine the chopped sorrel with a ladleful of rich béchamel sauce.
Season with salt, white pepper, and a lump of butter, then simmer until heated through.
Serve on a hot platter, garnished with quarters of hard-boiled eggs.
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.
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sorrel + saucetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together158 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sorrel + white peppertop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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White pepper + buttertop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,814 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sorrel, butter, sauce):
- Capersfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sorrel, butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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