Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Dutch Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Whisk in the flour, egg yolks, salt, pepper, and nutmeg until well combined.
Add the water and lemon juice.
Place the saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
If the sauce thickens too much, add a little more water.
To make the sauce more delicate, gradually add more butter off the heat.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Egg yolks
- Emulsify and thicken the sauce as they gently cook with the butter.
- Butter
- Provides richness and fat that gives the sauce a smooth, silky body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and egg flavor.
- Flour
- Stabilizes the emulsion and helps prevent the sauce from breaking.
The step that matters
Cooking over low heat while stirring constantly. Egg yolks begin to set around moderate heat and can scramble if overheated. Constant stirring over low heat keeps the yolks smooth and lets the butter emulsify evenly into a stable sauce.
“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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