[2] A similar tale refers to the Spanish cooks employed by Louis XIV's wife, Maria Theresa of Spain.

[4] Another suggestion is that in the 17th century, Spanish bacon and ham were introduced as the meat for the stock on which the sauce is based, rather than the traditional beef.

[5] The term "sauce espagnole" appears in Vincent La Chapelle's 1733 cookery book Le Cuisinier moderne, but no recipe is given.

[7] By the middle of the 19th century the sauce was familiar in the English-speaking world: in her Modern Cookery of 1845 Eliza Acton gave two recipes for it, one with added wine and one without.

[10] Tomato purée is added to the other ingredients in some more recent recipes, including in the catering textbook Practical Cookery by Victor Ceserani and Ronald Kinton.