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White Onion Sauce

A sauce made from boiled onions, butter, consommé, plain sauce, and cream, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

White Onion Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Peel the onions.

  2. Cut the onions in half in a basin of water.

  3. Boil the onions in a large stewpan with boiling water and salt until half cooked.

  4. Drain the onions in a sieve.

  5. Boil the onions in another pot of boiling water until very tender.

  6. Drain the onions again.

Make the sauce

  1. Place the onions in a stewpan with butter, stirring over heat until well mixed.

  2. Stir in the consommé.

  3. Boil for a few minutes.

  4. Add the plain sauce.

  5. Continue stirring until well boiled.

  6. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  7. Add the boiled cream.

  8. Season with salt.

  9. Heat until very hot 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Onions
Form the bulk of the sauce and, once softened and pressed, give it body and sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel as it coats the softened onions.
Consommé
Contributes savoury meat flavour and liquid to loosen the onion mixture.
Plain sauce
Thickens the mixture and adds body to the finished sauce.
Boiled cream
Adds fat and softness, giving the sauce a rounder, silkier texture.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Onion pulp only turns smooth when its cell walls are fully broken down and pushed through. Skipping the sieve or rushing it leaves fibrous, grainy bits that spoil the silky texture of the finished sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce, cream):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, cream. 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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