Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
To Hash Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the venison thinly.
Make the hash
In a stewpan, combine the venison, port wine, browning sauce, ketchup, and onion.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the venison and heat thoroughly.
Serve
Arrange slices of toast in a soup dish.
Pour the hash over the toast and serve with currant jelly.
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.
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Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together356 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Port wine + clovetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together914 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Provides the main meat, which is cooked through in the hash.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the braising liquid.
- Browning sauce
- Adds colour and a savoury, caramelised flavour to the hash.
- Ketchup
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich meat.
- Onion
- Adds aroma and savoury flavour as it simmers with the meat.
The step that matters
Heat the venison thoroughly after adding it. Sliced venison is lean and cooks quickly, so it turns dry and tough if overheated. Heating it just until hot through keeps it tender while making sure it is cooked safely.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, port wine, sauce, ketchup, onion, clove):
- Red currantfits better
- Applefits about as well
- Grapefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, port wine, sauce, ketchup, onion, clove. 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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