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Sicilian Sauce

A savory sauce made with coriander, cloves, ham essence, lemon, garlic, celery, bay leaves, basil, white wine, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sicilian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavourings

  1. Bruise coriander seeds and cloves in a mortar.

  2. In a stewpan, combine gravy and essence of ham.

  3. Peel and thinly slice the lemon, then add it to the stewpan with coriander and cloves.

Make the sauce

  1. Bring to a boil, then add garlic, celery, bay leaves, and basil.

  2. Boil until the liquid is reduced by half.

  3. Add white wine, strain the sauce, and if not thick enough, stir in butter rolled in flour.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,823 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  4. Coriander + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,474 recipes

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

  5. Garlic + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gravy
Forms the savoury liquid base that the sauce is built on and reduced from.
Essence of ham
Adds concentrated meaty flavour to the base liquid.
Butter rolled in flour
Thickens the sauce so it coats the back of a spoon.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the reduced sauce.
Celery
Contributes a vegetal aroma that infuses the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Reducing concentrates flavour and body as water evaporates. Stopping early leaves the sauce thin and bland, while over-reducing makes it salty and sticky, so watch the volume closely.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, ham, lemon, garlic, celery, basil, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, ham, lemon, garlic, celery, basil, white wine. 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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