Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,047 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Tartars Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Chop the mushrooms and onion finely.
Cook them in ½ pint of water for 15 minutes.
Add the butter and season with pepper and salt.
Strain the sauce and return it to the saucepan.
Thicken the sauce with the wheatmeal.
Add the lemon juice and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Serve the sauce.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mushrooms
- Provide the main body and savoury flavour of the sauce as they cook down in water.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished sauce.
- Allinson fine wheatmeal
- Thickens the cooking liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the sauce body.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the butter.
The step that matters
Thicken the sauce with the wheatmeal. Wheatmeal must be stirred into the hot liquid and simmered so its starch cooks fully; adding it to cold liquid or skipping the simmer can leave lumps and a raw, floury taste.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, pepper, lemon):
- Shallotbetter flavor fit
- Spinachbetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, pepper, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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