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To Stew Sorrel for Fricandeau and Roast Meat

A simple stew of sorrel cooked in water and finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and butter work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 652 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Stew Sorrel for Fricandeau and Roast Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Wash the sorrel and place it in a silver vessel or stone jar with just enough water to cling to the leaves.

  2. Simmer the sorrel slowly until tender.

  3. Once cooked, add a bit of butter and beat it well.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together652 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

Sorrel
Forms the main body of the dish and, once softened, gives it a tangy, sharp flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture when beaten into the cooked sorrel.

The step that matters

Simmering slowly until tender. Sorrel breaks down quickly and can turn dull or bitter if overheated. Low, gentle heat softens the leaves evenly while keeping their bright flavour, and the small amount of water keeps them from scorching.

“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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