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Roman Sauce

A sauce made from water, milk, flour, eggs, pepper, salt, butter, and vinegar, served over sliced boiled eggs and meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Roman Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat the water and milk until scalding.

  2. Stir in the flour and beaten eggs until well combined.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, butter, and vinegar.

  4. Cook until thickened, then pour over sliced boiled eggs.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled tongue, beef, venison, or fish.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken the sauce as they cook and set into a smooth body.
Flour
Starch thickens the liquid and gives the sauce body so it coats the eggs.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and adds richness and a mild sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened. Eggs can curdle or scramble if the heat is too high or they cook too fast. Cooking gently while stirring lets the egg proteins and flour thicken the sauce smoothly.

“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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