Why it works: Lemon and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Wine Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Combine the marmalade, sugar, and water in a saucepan.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture.
Finish the sauce
Add the lemon juice and sherry.
Add carmine if desired.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Marmalade
- Provides the main fruit and bitter-orange flavour, with some sweetness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharp citrus flavours.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts the sweetness.
- Sherry
- Adds wine-like aroma and depth of flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Simmer for 20 minutes. Simmering lets water evaporate, which concentrates the flavour and thickens the liquid. Simmering too briefly leaves the sauce thin and weak, while simmering too hard can over-reduce it.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sherry):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sherry. 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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