Name: Bread Sauce
Ingredients: 1 large slice stale bread, grated; 1 cup cream; a little mace; ¼ teaspoon salt; ⅓ cup wine

Why it works: Cream and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,009 recipes. The science ↓

Bread Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the grated stale bread in the cream with mace and salt.
When about half done, add the wine.
Stir until well combined and heated through.

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.

Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,009 recipes
Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Bread + winetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together956 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Mace + winetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,435 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Bread + macetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,005 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread: Thickens the cream as its starch absorbs liquid and softens into a smooth sauce.
Cream: Adds richness and body, carrying the flavour of the mace and bread.
Wine: Adds acidity and depth that balances the richness of the cream.