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Sauce

Dutch Sauce

A sauce made from egg yolks, butter, cream, vinegar, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Dutch Sauce

Why it works: Tarragon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dutch Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine egg yolks, butter, cream, vinegar, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in a heatproof bowl.

  2. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

  3. Stir the mixture quickly with a wooden spoon until it thickens to a creamy consistency.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Tarragon + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken and emulsify the sauce as they warm, giving it a creamy, rich body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and smoothness, helping the sauce stay silky when warmed.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the sauce for a smoother texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich yolk and butter flavors.

The step that matters

Stirring over the water. Egg yolks set quickly above about 160°F and can scramble if the heat is too high or the mixture sits still. Stirring constantly over gentle simmering water keeps the heat even so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the tarragon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, cream, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Tarragonthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, cream, pepper, nutmeg. 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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