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Sauce

Venison Sauce

A sauce made with port wine, white sugar, currant jelly, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Port wine and currant work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Venison Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the port wine in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the white sugar and currant jelly until dissolved.

  3. Add the butter and mix until melted and combined.

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. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Port wine + sugartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together805 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Port wine
Provides the main liquid and a rich, fruity flavour that forms the base of the sauce.
White sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the wine's tartness and round out the sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds fruity sweetness and body, and helps the sauce thicken slightly as it cools.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy texture and a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir in the sugar and jelly until dissolved. Sugar and jelly must fully dissolve into the hot wine; undissolved grains or lumps leave a gritty texture. Adding them while the wine is hot speeds dissolving, and the butter should be stirred in off the heat or over low heat so it emulsifies smoothly rather than separating.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, sugar, butter):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, sugar, butter. 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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