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Sauce

Chateaubriand Sauce

A sauce made with sherry, Espagnole sauce, brown sauce, sea salt, butter, lemon juice, parsley, and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Chateaubriand Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine sherry, Espagnole sauce, and brown sauce.

  2. Thicken the mixture by reducing it over heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Add coarse sea salt, butter, lemon juice, chopped parsley, and mushroom ketchup.

  2. Heat the sauce until very hot and serve.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

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

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sherry
Adds acidity and depth of flavour that concentrates as the sauce reduces.
Espagnole sauce
Provides the base body and savoury flavour of the sauce.
Brown sauce
Adds richness and body to the reduced sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy finish and rounder mouthfeel.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami flavour.

The step that matters

Reducing the mixture. Reducing over heat thickens the sauce by evaporating water and concentrates its flavour. Reducing too little leaves it thin and weak; reducing too far can make it overly salty or sticky.

“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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