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Sauce

Champagne Sauce

A sauce made from Espagnole, mushroom liquor, champagne, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Champagne Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Simmer the Espagnole Sauce until reduced to 1½ cups.

  2. Add mushroom liquor, champagne, and powdered sugar, then stir well to combine.

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 + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Mushroom + champagnetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sauce + mushroomtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Champagne + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sauce + champagnetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Espagnole sauce
Forms the base of the sauce, giving body and savory flavor as it reduces.
Mushroom liquor
Adds earthy, savory mushroom flavor and aroma.
Champagne
Adds bright acidity and a fruity, yeasty aroma.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sauce's acidity and savoriness.

The step that matters

Reduce the Espagnole Sauce to 1½ cups. Simmering evaporates water, concentrating flavor and thickening the sauce. Stopping at the target volume sets the final body and flavor strength, so a sauce reduced too little will be thin and weak.

“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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