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Sauce

White Italian Sauce

A light white sauce made with sauce tournee, veal stock, mushrooms, shallots, water, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

White Italian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the mushrooms and soak them in water and lemon juice to keep them white.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the sauce tournee and veal stock.

  2. Add the chopped mushrooms and shallots.

  3. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until well flavored.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mushroom + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sauce tournee
Forms the base of the sauce, giving it body and a smooth, thickened texture.
Veal stock
Adds savory depth and moisture, flavoring the sauce as it simmers.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy aroma and flavor to the sauce as they cook.
Shallots
Add a mild, sweet-savory aroma that builds flavor in the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmering the sauce. Simmering gently until well flavored lets the stock, mushrooms and shallots meld. Boiling too hard can break or scorch a thickened sauce, so it should be kept at a gentle simmer.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, veal, mushroom, shallot):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, veal, mushroom, shallot. 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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