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Sauce

Eschalot Sauce

A sauce made with chopped eschalots, eschalot wine, pepper, sea salt, and melted butter, served warm over meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wine and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,645 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Eschalot Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the eschalots.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped eschalots, eschalot wine, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Stir in the thick melted butter and heat gently until combined.

Serve

  1. Serve the sauce warm over chops, steaks, or roasted meats.

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. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Eschalots
Provide the sharp, onion-like flavour that mellows as the sauce warms.
Eschalot wine
Adds acidity and fruity depth that cuts through the richness of the butter.
Butter
Supplies fat for richness and a smooth, glossy body.
Pepper
Adds a pungent, sharp bite that stands up to rich meats.

The step that matters

Heat the butter gently. Melted butter is an emulsion of fat and water. Over high heat it can separate into greasy fat and a watery layer, so heating gently and stirring keeps the sauce smooth.

“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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