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Roman Sauce

A sauce made with water, milk, flour, eggs, pepper, salt, butter, vinegar, served with boiled eggs and game.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Roman Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the water and milk in a saucepan until scalding.

  2. Stir in the flour and beaten eggs until well combined.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, butter, and vinegar.

Prepare and serve

  1. Boil the eggs.

  2. Slice the boiled eggs.

  3. Arrange the sliced eggs in a serving dish.

  4. Serve with boiled tongue, venison, or large game.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs thicken the sauce as they set with the heated liquid, giving it body.
Flour
Starch thickens the liquid and gives the sauce a smooth, stable texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Milk
Provides liquid and milk proteins that add creaminess and mild sweetness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour and beaten eggs until well combined. Adding eggs to hot liquid can scramble them if the mixture is too hot or added too quickly. Combine gradually and keep the heat moderate so the eggs thicken the sauce smoothly rather than curdling into lumps.

“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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