Sauce Robert is one of the earliest compound sauces on record. Of the 78 compound sauces systematized by Marie-Antoine Carême in the early 19th century, only two—sauce Robert and remoulade—were present in much older cookbooks, such as Massaliot's Le Cuisinier Roial et Bourgeois, from 1691.Sokolov, Raymond. "The Saucier's Apprentice", A Brief History of French Sauces. pages 5–7. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1976. In Charles Perrault's canonical telling of Sleeping Beauty (1696), the ogress Queen Mother insists that Sleeping Beauty and her children be served to her à la sauce Robert.
