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Sauce

Epicurean Sauce

A cucumber-based mayonnaise sauce with anchovy essence, tarragon vinegar, and gherkins, served with fish, cold meat, or vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Epicurean Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cucumber

  1. Peel the cucumber thinly and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Cook the cucumber in salted water until tender, then drain.

  3. Rub the cucumber through a fine sieve to make a puree.

Make and combine the sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix the Mayonnaise with the cream, anchovy essence, gherkins, and chutney.

  2. Mix the cucumber puree with the tarragon vinegar and dissolved aspic jelly, which should be almost cold.

  3. Blend both mixtures together and season with salt, pepper, and a little sugar.

  4. Serve with fish, cold meat, or vegetables like asparagus or green artichokes.

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 + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tarragon + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Cucumber
Forms the bulk of the sauce, giving it body and a fresh, light flavour when puréed.
Mayonnaise
Provides fat and richness, giving the sauce its creamy body.
Aspic jelly
Sets as it cools, helping the sauce hold its shape and texture.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, mellowing the sharpness of the vinegar and anchovy.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and a sharp, aromatic note that brightens the sauce.

The step that matters

Let the aspic cool before blending. Aspic that is too warm can thin the mayonnaise and cream or split the emulsion. Cooling it until almost cold keeps the sauce smooth and lets it thicken properly as it chills.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, cream, tarragon, vinegar, anchovy, pepper, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cream, tarragon, vinegar, anchovy, pepper, sugar. 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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