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Wild Fowl, Sauces for

A citrusy, port-based sauce with shallots and cayenne, suitable for wild fowl.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,523 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Wild Fowl, Sauces for

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the lemon juice, port or claret, sliced shallots, Harvey's sauce, and cayenne in a saucepan.

  2. Stir the sauce over medium heat for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain the sauce into a tureen and serve very 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. Lemon + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon juice
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the wine's sweetness.
Port or claret
Provides the wine base, adding fruity depth and body as it warms.
Shallots
Add mild onion-like aroma and some sweetness as they soften in the sauce.
Harvey's sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth typical of a Worcestershire-style sauce.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat for 5 minutes. Gentle, steady heat lets the wine and shallot flavors meld and lightly reduce. Boiling hard reduces the sauce too fast and can make the wine taste harsh and concentrated.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, sauce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, sauce. 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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