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Sauce

Anchovy-sauce

A simple sauce made with butter, flour, water, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Anchovy-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine the butter and flour and mix well with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the cold water and stir until smooth and boiling.

  3. Remove from heat and place on a paper on the table.

  4. Stir in the anchovy sauce until well combined.

Serve

  1. Pour into a sauce boat for 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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, and coats the flour so it blends smoothly into the liquid.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid, giving it body.
Anchovy sauce
Adds a salty, savoury flavour that seasons the whole sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water and stirring until boiling. Adding cold liquid to the butter and flour mixture and stirring steadily helps prevent lumps. The starch only thickens fully once the sauce reaches a boil, so stopping early leaves it thin and floury.

“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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