Why it works: Rum and red wine share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 23 recipes mention both. Both carry eugenol, which smells clove, spicy. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Marinate
Soak the meat in sour orange juice and let stand for at least thirty minutes.
Drain the sour orange juice and mix with the ingredients listed under (B).
Baste the meat with the resulting paste.
If possible, allow to stand in the refrigerator for several hours before cooking.
Sear and braise
Heat two tablespoonfuls of olive oil in a deep pan.
When hot, add the meat slowly and turn the pieces frequently to sear all the meat surface.
Add the White Rum and carefully apply a match to light the rum. The rum should extinguish itself after a few seconds.
Add the cooking bacon, turning frequently.
After one or two minutes, add the cooking ham.
Add the ingredients included in (C) and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and cook until the meat is tender.
If necessary, add some water to assure a thick gravy.
Add the red wine shortly before serving.
Serve
Serve with white rice or, preferably, with boiled root vegetables.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Rum + red winetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together23 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
-
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together29,030 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Garlic + oreganotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,756 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Pepper + oreganotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,449 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Vinegar + red winetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together569 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Young goat (kid) meat
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, covered cooking.
- Sour orange juice
- Its acidity tenderises the meat during marinating and brightens the sauce.
- Olive oil
- Carries heat for searing the meat and adds richness to the gravy.
- Bacon
- Adds smoky fat and savoury depth that flavours the braising liquid.
- Olives
- Contribute briny, sharp flavour that balances the rich meat.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy when added near the end.
The step that matters
Searing the meat before braising. Searing in hot oil browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, building the deep savoury flavour the gravy depends on. Crowding the pan or stirring too little causes steaming and grey, bland meat.
Flavor stand-ins for the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, garlic, pepper, oregano, vinegar, onion, ham):
- Limebetter flavor fit
- Lemonbetter flavor fit
- Avocadobetter flavor fit
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, garlic, pepper, oregano, vinegar, onion, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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