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Sauce

French Maitre D’hotel, or Steward’s Sauce

A rich veal gravy thickened with roux, seasoned with butter, flour, parsley, lemon, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,036 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the roux

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Cook the roux for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

Finish the sauce

  1. Gradually add the boiling gravy in small portions, mixing well after each addition.

  2. Allow the sauce to boil briefly between additions to prevent the butter from floating.

  3. Simmer the sauce for a few minutes and skim off any foam.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, minced parsley, and lemon juice to taste.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together28,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Flour
Thickens the butter and gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Butter
Forms the fat base of the roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Rich pale veal gravy
Provides the main liquid and savory flavor of the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, buttery sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling gravy in small portions. Adding hot liquid slowly and whisking between additions lets the starch disperse evenly, so lumps do not form. Keeping the sauce boiling briefly between additions helps the butter stay emulsified rather than floating on the surface.

“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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