Name: White Sauce
Ingredients: water from boiled fowls, veal, or rabbit; a little broth; feet and necks of chickens; raw or dressed veal; a bit of lemon peel

Why it works: Veal and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,243 recipes. Both carry 3-butanedione, which smells buttery, creamy. The science ↓

White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the water from boiled fowls, veal, or rabbit with a little broth in a saucepan.
Add the feet and necks of chickens or raw veal.
Simmer gently, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
Add a bit of lemon peel for flavor.
Cook until the mixture is well combined and flavorful.

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.

Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,243 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,092 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).