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Sauce

Cambridge Sauce

A sauce made from anchovies, capers, mustard, vinegar, olive oil, and herbs, blended into a mayonnaise-like consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cambridge Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound all ingredients except parsley together until well combined.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. If too thick, gradually add more olive oil and vinegar until it resembles mayonnaise.

  4. Stir in the parsley and refrigerate until needed.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Capers + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Capers + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together624 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Form a rich, smooth emulsion base that gives the sauce body.
Olive oil
Adds fat that emulsifies with the yolks, creating a mayonnaise-like texture.
Anchovies
Contribute a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.
Capers
Add briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the yolks and oil.
French mustard
Helps bind the emulsion and adds a sharp, tangy bite.

The step that matters

Adding the olive oil and vinegar. Oil must be added gradually so it emulsifies into the yolk mixture; adding it too fast can break the emulsion, leaving the sauce oily and thin rather than creamy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, tarragon, vinegar, egg, capers, mustard, chervil):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Dillfits about as well
  3. Fennelfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, tarragon, vinegar, egg, capers, mustard, chervil. 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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