Wild-fowl Sauce

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together27,047 recipes

   Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

2. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
   Smell alikestrong
   Cooked together5,147 recipes

   Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together53,532 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

4. Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together1,804 recipes

   Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

5. Lemon + port winetop 21% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together1,100 recipes

   Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Lemon and sugar 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

Powdered sugar

Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the warm sauce, balancing the acidity and heat.

Lemon juice

Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and cuts the richness of the fowl.

Port wine

Adds fruity sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.

Worcestershire sauce

Adds savoury, fermented depth that rounds out the sharp and sweet notes.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, sauce, port wine):

1. Figfits better
2. Plumfits about as well
3. Lemonthe original
4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, sauce, port wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.