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Sauce

Green Grape Sauce

A sauce made from sour grapes, egg yolks, lemon juice, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,412 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Green Grape Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald the sour grapes and remove the stones.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the lemon juice.

  2. Add a small amount of flour to the mixture.

  3. Combine the grape mixture with the egg mixture and stir well.

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. Grape + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,412 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Grape + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,482 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Sour grapes
Provide the tart fruit flavour and the main body of the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness through their emulsifying proteins.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the tartness of the grapes.
Flour
Helps thicken the sauce and give it body.

The step that matters

Combine the grape mixture with the egg mixture and stir well. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Stirring well keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the grape

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Grapethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, flour. 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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