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Sauce

Turtle Sauce

A savory sauce made from beef gravy, Madeira wine, lime, basil, garlic, cayenne, anchovy essence, and Turtle Sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,491 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turtle Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine beef gravy, Turtle Sauce, Madeira wine, lime juice and peel, basil, garlic, cayenne, and anchovy essence in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer for 5 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve.

  3. Serve hot over grilled meats or as a sauce for waterfowl.

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. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

  2. Lime + basiltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Basil + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Basil + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Basil + clovetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 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

Beef gravy
Forms the savoury base of the sauce, providing body and meaty flavour.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour as it reduces slightly during simmering.
Lime
Contributes acidity and brightness that balances the rich gravy.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sauce, madeira wine, lime, basil, clove, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sauce, madeira wine, lime, basil, clove, pepper. 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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