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Sauce

Anchovy and Caper Sauce for Fish

A savory sauce made with anchovies, veal broth, soy sauce, shallot vinegar, nutmeg, butter, cayenne pepper, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Anchovy and Caper Sauce for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the anchovies through a fine sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the anchovies, veal broth, soy sauce, shallot vinegar, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the butter and heat over medium until boiling.

  3. Thicken the sauce, then stir in cayenne pepper and chopped capers.

  4. Simmer for 10 minutes and serve in a butter boat or pour over baked haddock or gurnet.

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 + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovies
Melt into the sauce to give it a deep, salty savour.
Veal broth
Forms the liquid base that the butter and thickening are built on.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture as it emulsifies into the sauce.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury depth and extra salty umami to the broth.
Shallot vinegar
Brings acidity that sharpens the rich butter and anchovy flavours.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and bringing the sauce to the boil. Butter can separate or turn greasy if it boils too hard or too fast. Heating over medium and stirring keeps the fat emulsified so the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, sauce, shallot, vinegar, butter, pepper, capers):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, sauce, shallot, vinegar, butter, pepper, capers. 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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