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Sauce

Fennel, Parsley, and Tarragon Sauces

A sauce made by blending blanched fennel, butter, and optional herbs or capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Fennel and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 134 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Fennel, Parsley, and Tarragon Sauces

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Blanch the fennel in boiling water for a few minutes.

  2. Finely mince the blanched fennel.

  3. Stir the minced fennel into the butter to make fennel sauce.

Variations

  1. For tarragon or parsley sauce, substitute minced tarragon or parsley for the fennel.

  2. For caper sauce, add chopped or whole capers to the butter.

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. Fennel + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together134 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Parsley + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Fennel + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together625 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Fennel bulb
Provides the main flavour and fine texture of the sauce once blanched and minced.
Butter
Forms the rich fat base that carries the minced flavouring and gives the sauce its body.
Tarragon
Adds a sharp, aniseed-like aroma in the tarragon variation.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green flavour in the parsley variation.
Capers
Add brininess and acidity to the butter in the caper variation.

The step that matters

Blanching the fennel. Blanching softens the fennel and mellows its raw, strong flavour so it blends smoothly into the butter. Too short a blanch leaves it crunchy and harsh, and mincing it too coarsely makes the sauce gritty.

Swap the fennel

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tarragon, parsley, capers):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Fennelthe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Dillfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tarragon, parsley, capers. 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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