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Sauce

Poulette

A white sauce with egg yolk, lemon juice, mushrooms, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Poulette

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare 1 pint of Bechamel or Velouté sauce.

  2. In a bowl, combine the yolk of egg and lemon juice.

  3. Stir in the chopped mushroom and parsley.

  4. Add this mixture to the sauce and stir well.

  5. Serve warm.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,132 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Bechamel or velouté sauce
Forms the creamy base that carries the flavours and gives the sauce its body.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and thickens it gently when heated, adding richness and smoothness.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the egg yolk.
Mushroom
Adds savoury, earthy flavour and a soft texture to the sauce.
Parsley
Contributes fresh, green aroma and a light herbal note.

The step that matters

Add the egg mixture to the sauce and stir well. Egg yolk thickens through gentle heat but curdles if it gets too hot. Stirring the mixture in evenly and keeping the sauce warm rather than boiling keeps it smooth and glossy.

“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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