Why it works: Sauce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Demi-glace Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Prepare the Espagnole sauce as directed.
Boil the sauce until well reduced.
Finish and serve
Add the gravy and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, then serve.
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.
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Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Espagnole sauce
- Forms the base of the sauce, providing body, richness and its characteristic flavour.
- Good gravy
- Adds meaty savoury flavour and extra liquid that carries the sauce's seasoning.
The step that matters
Boil the sauce until well reduced. Evaporation concentrates the flavour and thickens the sauce. Stopping too early leaves it thin and weak, while reducing too far can make it overly thick and salty once the gravy is added.
“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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