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Sauce

Espagnol Sauce

A brown sauce flavored with glaze or meat extract, mushrooms, sherry, carmine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Espagnol Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the brown sauce with the glaze or extract of meat.

  2. Add the chopped mushrooms, sherry, carmine, and caster sugar.

  3. Reduce the mixture by one fourth while keeping it skimmed while boiling.

  4. Strain the sauce through a tammy and use.

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. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Meat + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,423 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,167 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sauce
Forms the base of the sauce, giving body and a savory, roasted flavor.
Glaze or extract of meat
Adds concentrated meaty depth and richness to the sauce.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy aroma and savory flavor as they simmer in the sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity, deepening the sauce's flavor.

The step that matters

Reduce by one fourth while skimming. Reducing concentrates the flavor and thickens the sauce as water evaporates. Skimming while it boils removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the sauce and dull its taste.

“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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