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Sauce

Currant, for Venison

A sauce made from currants, bread, butter, cloves, and Port wine, boiled and served hot with venison.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Currant, for Venison

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil currants in water for a few minutes.

  2. Add grated bread, butter, cloves, and Port wine.

  3. Stir until it boils, then 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together914 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide tart, fruity flavour and natural pectin that helps the sauce set.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and swells as it heats, thickening the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, fruity depth and body to the sauce.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring until it boils after adding the bread. Grated bread must be stirred in well and brought to a boil so its starch swells evenly. Stirring prevents clumps and gives the sauce a smooth, uniform thickness.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, walnut, clove, port wine):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, walnut, clove, port wine. 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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