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Sauce

Dutch Sauce

A thickened sauce made from vinegar, peppercorns, egg yolks, butter, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Dutch Sauce

Why it works: Butter and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24,377 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Dutch Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine vinegar and peppercorns in a small saucepan; reduce to half and cool.

  2. Whisk in egg yolks, butter, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Place the saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened like cream.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer to another saucepan in a warm water bath.

  2. Whip the sauce until frothy, adding small pieces of butter gradually.

  3. Once light and smooth, pour into a sauceboat.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Vinegar + nutmegtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,864 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat.
Butter
Adds richness and body, emulsified into the yolks for a smooth texture.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the rich butter.

The step that matters

Stirring over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks thicken at low temperatures but scramble if overheated. Constant stirring and gentle heat keep the sauce smooth and prevent curdling.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, butter. 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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