Why it works: Honey and wine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 461 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutanoic acid ethyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
In a saucepan, combine pepper, gravy, rue, and chopped onions.
Add honey, garum, cooked wine, and a little oil.
Boil the mixture very slowly.
Thicken the sauce with flour.
Pour the sauce over the roasted deer.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Honey + winetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together461 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutanoic acid ethyl ester (sweet, green).
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Pepper + oniontop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,463 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + honeytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,988 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + winetop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + winetop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,052 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, honey, wine, flour):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Tomatobetter flavor fit
- Arrowrootbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, honey, wine, flour. 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).
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IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
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