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White-sauce

A white sauce made by simmering veal, poultry trimmings, and vegetables in broth, then skimming and reducing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,446 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

White-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Spread a stewpan with bacon, minced roots, and vegetables.

  2. Place the poultry trimmings, veal knuckles, and veal shoulder in the stewpan.

Make the stock

  1. Moisten the meat with 1 quart of broth and let it reduce quickly without coloring.

  2. Add more white broth to moisten the meat fully and skim the liquid.

  3. Move the stewpan to the side of the fire and add a garnished bunch, raw ham trimmings, and mushrooms.

  4. Continue to simmer until the meat is done.

Strain and finish

  1. Remove the meat and pass the stock through a napkin, skimming off the fat.

  2. Let the stock set, then decant it into a warm stewpan.

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. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckles
Release gelatin and body into the stock as they simmer for a richer sauce.
Fowls
Provide the main poultry flavor and meat that builds the stock.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that the meat simmers in to make the stock.
Bacon
Adds savory fat and smoky flavor to the base vegetables.
Fresh mushrooms
Add earthy aroma and savory depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Reduce without coloring. Browning the meat at this stage would darken the stock and change the sauce's pale color and clean flavor. Gentle reduction keeps the liquid light and lets the meat release its flavor.

“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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