Name: Wine Gravy Sauce
Ingredients: 1 pint strong brown gravy; 3 tablespoons port wine; 2 cloves; 1 small piece loaf sugar

Why it works: Port wine and clove work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 914 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Wine Gravy Sauce

Ingredients

1 pint strong brown gravy
3 tablespoons port wine
2 cloves
1 small piece loaf sugar

Directions

Combine the gravy, port wine, cloves, and loaf sugar in a saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Once boiling, remove from heat and serve.

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.

Port wine + clovetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together914 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Port wine + sugartop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together805 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together17,182 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Brown gravy: Provides the savory base and body of the sauce.
Port wine: Adds sweetness and fruity aroma that deepen the sauce's flavor.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the wine's acidity and savory notes.