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Sauce

German Herring Sauce

A sauce made from mashed Yarmouth bloater, onion, flour, milk, vinegar, bay leaves, pepper, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Herring Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the gills from the bloater and mash it finely.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt a little butter and sauté the chopped onion until soft.

  2. Stir in the flour, then gradually add the milk, vinegar, minced bay leaves, and pepper.

  3. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the mashed fish to the sauce.

  5. Just before serving, stir in the beaten egg yolks.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Flour and butter 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

Yarmouth bloater
Provides the smoky, savoury fish flavour that defines the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce when stirred in near the end.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth after softening in butter.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce is boiling when they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy. Adding them just before serving, off the boil, keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, vinegar, pepper, egg, 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.

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