Why it works: Sorrel and butter work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 652 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sorrel Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Wash, squeeze, and chop the sorrel finely.
Put the sorrel into a saucepan with the butter.
Stew until the liquid is nearly evaporated.
Add the strong cullis and stir until the sauce is thick.
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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Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sorrel
- Provides the main flavour and bright acidity, and breaks down into the body of the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel as the sorrel stews.
- Strong cullis
- Adds concentrated meaty flavour and body, thickening the sauce as it reduces.
The step that matters
Stewing until the liquid nearly evaporates. Sorrel releases a lot of water, which dilutes the sauce. Cooking it down concentrates the flavour and prevents a thin, watery result before the cullis is added.
“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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