Name: Sultana Sauce
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons water; ¼ pound butter; 2 ounces sultana raisins (soaked in brandy)

Why it works: Raisin and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,768 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sultana Sauce

Ingredients

2 teaspoons water
¼ pound butter
2 ounces sultana raisins (soaked in brandy)

Directions

Put water into a small saucepan and bring to a boil.
Add butter and stir until melted.
Add soaked sultana raisins and serve immediately.

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.

Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,768 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + raisintop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,630 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Provides fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, glossy body.
Sultana raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture, and their soaking in brandy adds aroma.