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Sauce

Sicilian Sauce

A sauce made with coriander seeds, cloves, gravy, ham essence, and lemon peel, boiled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sicilian Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a mortar, bruise the coriander seeds and cloves well.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the bruised spices with gravy, ham essence, and lemon peel. Bring the mixture to a boil.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

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

  2. Coriander + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + hamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,666 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Ham + lemontop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,788 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Coriander seeds
Provide the warm, citrusy aroma that flavours the sauce.
Cloves
Add a pungent, warm aroma that gives the sauce depth.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours and gives body to the sauce.
Ham essence
Adds concentrated savoury, meaty flavour to the sauce.
Lemon peel
Adds bright, fragrant citrus aroma and a touch of acidity.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coriander, ham, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coriander, ham, lemon. 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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