Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Lemon Sauce, for Boiled Fowls
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the rind from the lemon and slice it small, discarding the kernels.
Bruise the liver of the fowl and mix it with the gravy stock.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, then combine it with the liver mixture and lemon slices.
Bring to a boil and add a little lemon peel to taste.
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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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lemon
- Provides the sharp acidity and fragrant oils that flavour the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky body to the sauce.
- Gravy stock
- Supplies liquid and savoury depth to the sauce base.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil and add a little lemon peel to taste. Boiling a sauce containing lemon and butter can cause the butter to separate and the lemon to turn bitter if overcooked, so heat should be managed carefully.
“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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