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Sauce

Curacao Sauce

A sauce made from Curaçao cordial, simple syrup, brandy, cloves, and orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,987 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Curacao Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cordial

  1. Steep orange peel in proof spirit to make Curaçao cordial.

  2. Mix the cordial with three times as much simple syrup.

Substitute and finish

  1. For a substitute, boil simple syrup with cloves and grated orange peel.

  2. Strain the mixture and add brandy.

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. Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Brandy + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Brandy + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Syrup + brandytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together561 recipes
  5. Syrup + orangetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Curacao cordial
Supplies the concentrated orange flavour that defines the sauce.
Simple syrup
Provides sweetness and a smooth, syrupy body.
Brandy
Adds warmth and aromatic depth to the finished sauce.
Orange peel
Contributes fragrant citrus oils for aroma.
Cloves
Adds warm spice aroma in the substitute version.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, brandy, orange):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, brandy, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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