Name: Sauce D VAmiral
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons chopped capers; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon lemon rind; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon anchovy essence; 2 cups white sauce (veloutee or Allemande)

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sauce D VAmiral

Ingredients

2 tablespoons chopped capers
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon lemon rind
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon anchovy essence
2 cups white sauce (veloutee or Allemande)

Directions

In a saucepan, prepare a white sauce (velouté or Allemande).
Stir in the chopped capers, parsley, lemon rind, and lemon juice.
Add the anchovy essence and mix well.
Serve warm over your choice of dish.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,550 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,222 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together473 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

White sauce: Forms the smooth, thick base that carries the other flavourings.
Capers: Add a sharp, salty bite that cuts through the richness of the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances its richness.
Anchovy essence: Adds a deep, savoury saltiness that rounds out the flavour.

“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.