Name: Another Poivrade Sauce, Tor Cold Meat
Ingredients: 1 hard-boiled egg yolk; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon mustard; 2 tablespoons oil; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 1 tablespoon chopped chives; slices of cold meat

Why it works: Mustard and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 587 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Another Poivrade Sauce, Tor Cold Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Bruise the yolk of a hard-boiled egg in a bowl.
Add coarse sea salt, mustard, oil, soy sauce, chopped parsley, and chives, then mix well and pour over slices of cold meat.

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.

Mustard + chivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together587 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,150 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,588 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mustard + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together855 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolk: Its yolk, mashed, forms a creamy base that emulsifies with the oil and mustard.
Mustard: Its natural emulsifiers help hold the oil and yolk together, and its sharpness adds bite.
Oil: Provides fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel that carries the herbs' flavour.
Soy sauce: Adds savoury depth and salt-driven umami that lifts the sauce.
Parsley: Adds fresh, green aroma and a light herbal brightness.

The step that matters

Mix well. The yolk, mustard and oil must be combined thoroughly so the mixture emulsifies into a smooth, cohesive sauce rather than separating into greasy droplets.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mustard, sauce, chive, meat):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Garlicfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mustard, sauce, chive, meat. 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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Another Poivrade Sauce, Tor Cold Meat