Name: Poivrade Sauce
Ingredients: 2 shallots, chopped; 1 hard-boiled egg yolk; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 tablespoon mushroom or walnut ketchup; 1 tablespoon chili vinegar or lemon juice; 2 tablespoons melted butter (for hot sauce) or salad oil (for cold sauce)

Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Poivrade Sauce

Ingredients

2 shallots, chopped
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon mushroom or walnut ketchup
1 tablespoon chili vinegar or lemon juice
2 tablespoons melted butter (for hot sauce) or salad oil (for cold sauce)

Directions

Chop the shallots and place them in a bowl.
Bruise the yolk of the hard-boiled egg with salt and cayenne pepper.
Add the egg mixture to the shallots along with the ketchup.
Season with chili vinegar or lemon juice.
If serving hot, mix in melted butter; if serving cold, use salad oil.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,374 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

Hard-boiled egg yolk: Mashed yolk thickens the sauce and gives it a rich, smooth body.
Melted butter or salad oil: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy texture, with butter for hot and oil for cold.
Shallots: Provide a mild, sharp onion-like aroma and flavor.
Chili vinegar or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, mushroom, vinegar, butter):

Capsicumfits about as well
Shallotthe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, mushroom, vinegar, butter. 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.