Why it works: Capers and sauce work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 678 recipes mention both. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: egg yolk
Directions
Prepare the base
Chop the capers and truffles very finely.
In a small saucepan, combine the capers, truffles, garlic, salad oil, pepper, and nutmeg.
Fry lightly on the stove for 2-3 minutes.
Moisten with the white wine and bring to a boil for 3 minutes.
Make the sauce
Add the Veloute sauce, bay leaf, and thyme, and stir until boiling.
Reduce heat and let it simmer, skimming as needed.
Add another ⅓ cup of wine and reduce the sauce, thickening with 3 egg yolks.
Finish and serve
Pour into a bain-marie and just before serving, mix in the chives, parsley, tarragon, anchovy butter, and lemon juice.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Capers + saucetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together678 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + thymetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,907 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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White wine + thymetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,495 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Garlic + thymetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,608 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks (in the method)
- Thicken the sauce and add richness as they set gently with heat.
- White veloute sauce
- Forms the creamy, body-giving base of the sauce.
- French white wine
- Adds acidity and aroma while reducing to concentrate flavour.
- Truffles
- Contribute a deep, earthy aroma to the sauce.
- French capers
- Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness.
- Anchovy butter
- Adds savoury depth and salt, rounding out the finished sauce.
The step that matters
Thickening with egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the sauce boils after they are added they can scramble and curdle. Keep the heat low and the sauce below a simmer once the yolks go in.
Flavor stand-ins for the capers
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (truffle, garlic, pepper, nutmeg, white wine, sauce, thyme):
- Marjorambetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Winter savorybetter flavor fit
- Capersthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against truffle, garlic, pepper, nutmeg, white wine, sauce, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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