Name: Champagne Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup champagne; 2 cloves; 4 peppercorns; 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 cup brown sauce

Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Champagne Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Infuse the champagne

In a saucepan, combine champagne, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, and sugar.
Simmer for 5 minutes.

Finish and serve

Add brown sauce and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Strain the sauce before serving with ham.

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.

Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Champagne + clovetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together111 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Champagne + sugartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together424 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together17,182 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Clove + saucetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,089 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Champagne: Adds acidity and a bright, fruity aroma that lifts the rich brown sauce.
Brown sauce: Provides the savoury body and deep colour that the sauce is built on.
Sugar: Adds a little sweetness to balance the acidity of the champagne.