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Tarragon Sauce

A vinaigrette-style sauce made with tarragon vinegar, tarragon, shallots, olive oil, egg yolks, capers, gherkins, and optional olives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 405 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tarragon Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine tarragon vinegar, minced tarragon, and minced shallots.

  2. Whisk in olive oil until well blended.

  3. Add egg yolks and mix until smooth.

  4. Stir in chopped capers, gherkins, and olives if using.

  5. Serve as a sauce for meats or vegetables.

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. Shallot + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Tarragon + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 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

Egg yolks
Emulsify the oil and vinegar into a smooth, thick sauce.
Olive oil
Provides fat and richness, giving the sauce body and a smooth texture.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity and the characteristic tarragon flavor to the sauce.
Shallots
Add a mild, sharp onion-like aroma and flavor.
Capers
Add briny, sharp bursts of acidity and salt-like flavor.

The step that matters

Whisking in the olive oil. Oil must be added gradually to the vinegar and yolks so it emulsifies into a smooth sauce instead of separating into a greasy layer.

“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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