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 ↓
Sorrel Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Wash, clean, squeeze, and chop the sorrel finely.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped sorrel and stew until the liquid is almost reduced.
Stir in the strong cullis and cook until the sauce reaches a good thickness.
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.
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Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provides the sharp, acidic flavour that defines the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the sauce.
- Strong cullis
- Adds concentrated meat flavour and body, helping the sauce thicken.
The step that matters
Reducing the sorrel until the liquid is almost gone. Sorrel releases a lot of water as it cooks. Stewing it long enough evaporates that liquid and concentrates the flavour, so the sauce does not turn thin or watery when the cullis is added.
“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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