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Sauce

Robert Sauce

A savory sauce made with onions, butter, wine, brown sauce, mustard, anchovy sauce, and glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Robert Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Dice the onions and fry them in the butter for 15 minutes.

  2. Add the wine and gently boil for 4 minutes.

  3. Add the brown sauce and glaze, then boil gently for 20 minutes, skimming off the butter as it rises.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in the mustard.

  2. Season with pepper and salt to taste.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, giving the sauce a savory base.
Butter
Carries the onions' flavor and adds richness and a silky mouthfeel.
French white wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and its flavor concentrates as it boils down.
Brown sauce
Forms the main body and depth of flavor in the sauce.
Glaze
Adds body, gloss and concentrated sweetness as it reduces.
French mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Skimming off the butter as it rises. Butter floating on a boiling sauce can emulsify unevenly and make it greasy. Removing it as it rises keeps the sauce clean-tasting and smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, white wine, sauce, anchovy):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, white wine, sauce, anchovy. 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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