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Sauce

Sicilian Sauce

A savory sauce made with coriander seeds, cloves, ham essence, lemon, garlic, celery, bay leaves, basil, white wine, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sicilian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavourings

  1. Bruise the coriander seeds and cloves in a mortar.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the gravy and essence of ham.

  2. Add the lemon slices, coriander seeds, and cloves to the stewpan.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add the whole garlic cloves, sliced celery, bay leaves, and basil.

  4. Boil until the mixture reduces by half.

  5. Stir in the white wine and strain the sauce.

  6. If the sauce is not thick enough, mix the butter and flour together and add it to the sauce.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,823 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Coriander + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter and flour
Together they form a roux that thickens the sauce when it is not thick enough.
White wine
Adds acidity and a light, bright flavour to the finished sauce.
Essence of ham
Adds concentrated savoury, meaty flavour to the sauce base.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying all the other flavours.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture reduces by half. Reducing concentrates the flavour and body of the liquid. Stopping too early leaves the sauce thin and weak, while over-reducing can make it salty and overly intense.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, ham, lemon, garlic, celery, basil, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, ham, lemon, garlic, celery, basil, white wine. 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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