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Sorrel Sauce

A sauce made from young sorrel, butter, consommé, cream sauce, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sorrel Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sorrel

  1. Pick and wash the sorrel thoroughly, then drain it well.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the sorrel and butter, and stew gently over low heat.

  3. After cooking, drain the sorrel in a sieve for 3 minutes.

Purée and finish the sauce

  1. Using a wooden spoon, rub the sorrel through a tammy into a dish.

  2. Return the puréed sorrel to the saucepan, add more butter, and stir over heat until well mixed.

  3. Add the consommé and boil for a few minutes.

  4. Stir in the cream sauce and add salt if needed.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sorrel + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together652 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Young sorrel
Provides the sharp, acidic flavour that defines the sauce and breaks down into a smooth purée.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture that carries the flavour of the sorrel.
Consommé
Adds savoury depth and liquid, thinning the purée into a pourable sauce.
Cream sauce
Adds body and mellows the sharpness of the sorrel, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Stewing the sorrel gently over low heat. Sorrel is mostly water and can scorch or turn dull and brown if cooked too hot. Gentle heat softens it evenly, keeping its bright green colour and fresh acidity ready for puréeing.

Swap the sorrel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Sorrelthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sauce. 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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