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Espagnole, with Wine

A mushroom-based sauce made with veal gravy, Madeira or sherry, and seasoned with cayenne pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Espagnole, with Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Fry the mushrooms gently in a saucepan until they turn reddish.

  2. Add the flour and lightly brown it.

  3. Gradually add the hot veal gravy, letting each portion boil before adding the next.

  4. Stir well and then add the Madeira or sherry.

  5. Simmer the sauce gently for 30 minutes.

  6. Add cayenne and salt if needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the sauce and skim off any fat.

  2. 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 + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

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

  4. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 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

Flour
Browned with the mushrooms, it thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Veal gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding body and savoury meaty flavour.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and sweetness, rounding out and deepening the flavour of the sauce.
Mushrooms
Frying them releases and browns their savoury flavour, adding depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the hot veal gravy gradually. Pouring in cold or all at once makes lumps as the flour clumps. Adding hot gravy a portion at a time, and letting each boil, lets the starch swell smoothly into a silky, even sauce.

“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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