Skip to main content
Main

Lamb Sauce

A sauce made from claret wine, grape or currant jelly, tomato catsup, butter, red pepper, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lamb Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine the claret wine, jelly, tomato catsup, butter, red pepper, and allspice in a saucepan.

  2. Heat the mixture gently, ensuring it does not boil.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the claret just before serving and serve hot.

  2. Adjust the amount of catsup to your preference.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Wine + grapetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together819 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).

  4. Grape + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Wine + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret wine
Adds acidity and winey depth that brightens the richness of the sauce.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and body, helping the sauce cling to the meat.
Tomato catsup
Adds sweet-tart flavor and thickness to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, silkier texture and richer mouthfeel.
Red pepper
Adds a sharp background heat that lifts the other flavors.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice notes that complement the fruit and tomato.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture gently, without boiling. Butter can separate out of the sauce when it gets too hot, leaving it greasy and grainy. Gentle heat keeps the fat emulsified and the sauce smooth, and it also prevents the jelly and catsup from scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, grape, tomato, butter, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, grape, tomato, butter, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes