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Sauce

Neapolitan Sauce

A savory sauce made with ham, brown sauce, stock, claret, Harvey's sauce, currant jelly, shallots, horseradish, bay leaf, herbs, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 376 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Neapolitan Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Combine the minced ham, brown sauce, stock, claret, Harvey's sauce, currant jelly, shallots, horseradish, bay leaf, herbs, and peppercorns in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer the mixture over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve before serving.

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. Shallot + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together376 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sauce + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together775 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ham + shallottop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sauce
Forms the thick, savoury base that gives the sauce its body.
Claret
Adds acidity and depth, and reduces slightly as it simmers.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the wine and horseradish.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat that mellows during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering over low heat. Gentle heat lets the flavours of the ham, herbs and aromatics infuse without scorching the sauce or making it bitter. Stirring occasionally prevents the solids from sticking to the base of the pan.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, sauce, shallot, horseradish):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, sauce, shallot, horseradish. 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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