Why it works: Currant and sherry work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Currant Jelly Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare 1 cup of Brown Sauce, omitting onion and using double the amount of flour.
Stir in ⅓ cup of Currant Jelly and 1 tablespoon of Sherry wine.
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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Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Currant + winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,323 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sauce + sherrytop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,097 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + winetop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,936 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sherry + winetop 32% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together0 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Currant jelly
- Adds fruity sweetness and acidity, and melts into the sauce to give it body and gloss.
- Sherry wine
- Adds acidity and a deep aroma that brightens the rich, savory brown sauce.
- Brown sauce
- Forms the savory base of the sauce, providing body and rich flavor.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sherry, wine):
- Grapefits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Applefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sherry, 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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