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Sauce

Wine Sauce for Breaded Chops, or Game

A wine-based sauce with butter, currant jelly, brown sugar, and allspice, served hot over breaded chops or game.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and allspice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,359 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Wine Sauce for Breaded Chops, or Game

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the currant jelly, brown sugar, and allspice.

  3. Stew until the allspice flavor is noticeable.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the sauce into a sauceboat and serve hot.

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. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  2. Red wine + curranttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret (red wine)
Provides the main body of flavor and a mild acidity that balances the sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a smooth, glossy texture.
Currant jelly
Adds fruity sweetness and body, helping the sauce cling to the chops.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, caramel-like flavor.
Whole allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor that infuses into the liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stew until the allspice flavor is noticeable. Whole allspice releases its flavor slowly into warm liquid, so the sauce should be tasted as it stews. Simmering too long can make the spice harsh and bitter and reduce the sauce too far, so stop once the flavor is clear.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, butter, currant, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, butter, currant, sugar. 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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