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Sauce

White Sauce for Fish

A sauce made from anchovies, white wine, vinegar, onion, butter, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

White Sauce for Fish

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped anchovies, white wine, vinegar, and onion.

  2. Simmer until the anchovies dissolve.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. In a separate bowl, knead the butter with the flour.

  2. Add the butter mixture to the strained liquid and melt over low heat.

  3. Gradually stir in the cream, ensuring it does not boil.

  4. Once heated through, serve in a sauce-tureen.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, giving it a smooth, rich texture as it melts.
Flour
Kneaded with butter to thicken the sauce and give it body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow body to the sauce.
Anchovies
Dissolve into the liquid to give the sauce its deep savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the cream, ensuring it does not boil. Cream can curdle or separate when it boils. Adding it gradually over low heat and keeping it below boiling keeps the sauce smooth and emulsified.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, onion, butter, flour, cream):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, onion, butter, flour, cream. 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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