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Sorrel, Puree of

A thickened sorrel puree made with butter, cream or gravy, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 231 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sorrel, Puree of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sorrel

  1. Pick the sorrel, remove the stalks, and wash it well, changing the water frequently.

  2. Place the sorrel in a saucepan with just enough water to cover the bottom, sprinkle with salt, and cook gently for about 20 minutes, turning it over occasionally.

  3. Drain the sorrel well and rub it through a fine sieve into a stewpan.

Finish the puree

  1. Add the butter and either cream or gravy, season with salt and pepper, and stir over low heat for 8 to 10 minutes.

  2. Gradually add flour until the puree reaches the desired consistency, then serve.

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. Sorrel + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Sorrel + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together419 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sorrel + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

Sorrel
Forms the main body of the puree and gives its sharp, lemony flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the puree.
Cream or gravy
Adds moisture and body, loosening the puree to a smooth texture.
Flour
Thickens the puree so it holds its consistency when served.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour. Flour thickens through starch that swells when heated in liquid. Adding it all at once can form lumps that are hard to smooth out, so it is added little by little until the desired consistency is reached.

Swap the sorrel

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Sorrelthe original
  3. Parsleyfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, flour, pepper. 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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