Name: Sauce for Venison
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons currant jelly; 1 stick cinnamon; 1 blade mace; ¼ cup grated white bread; 10 tablespoons water

Why it works: Cinnamon and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Sauce for Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, combine currant jelly, cinnamon, mace, grated white bread, and water.
Let the mixture stew over low heat until well combined.

Serve

Serve the sauce alongside venison steaks.

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.

Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,791 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Currant + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,705 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Currant + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,398 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Currant jelly: Provides sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the rich flavour of the venison.
Grated white bread: Acts as a thickener, giving the sauce body as it stews.