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Sauce

Sorrel Sauce

A sauce made from chopped sorrel, butter, and strong cullis.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and butter work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 652 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sorrel Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sorrel

  1. Wash the sorrel.

  2. Squeeze the sorrel.

  3. Chop the sorrel finely.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a stewpan.

  2. Add the chopped sorrel.

  3. Cook until the liquid is almost reduced.

  4. Stir in the strong cullis.

  5. Cook until the sauce thickens.

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. Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sorrel
Provides the sharp, lemony acidity that defines the sauce and breaks down into its body.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel that rounds the sour sorrel.
Strong cullis
Supplies concentrated meaty flavour and body that thickens the sauce as it reduces.

The step that matters

Cook until the liquid is almost reduced. Sorrel releases a lot of water. Reducing that liquid concentrates the flavour before the cullis goes in, so the sauce does not turn thin and watery. Keep the heat moderate, since overcooked sorrel loses its bright green colour and turns dull.

“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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