Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 1 heaped ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ⅛ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 2 teaspoons pounded sugar; 1 tablespoon strained lemon juice; 2 tablespoons Harvey’s sauce; 1 teaspoon best mushroom catsup; 3 tablespoons port wine

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

1 heaped ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
⅛ teaspoon coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons pounded sugar
1 tablespoon strained lemon juice
2 tablespoons Harvey’s sauce
1 teaspoon best mushroom catsup
3 tablespoons port wine

Directions

Combine cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and pounded sugar in a bowl.
Add strained lemon juice, Harvey's sauce, mushroom catsup, and port wine, then mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Serve with brown gravy of a hash or stew, or with game dishes.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together570 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cayenne pepper: Provides the sharp, fiery heat that defines the sauce.
Strained lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the sweetness.
Pounded sugar: Adds sweetness that rounds out the heat and acidity.
Port wine: Contributes liquid and fruity, rich depth to the sauce.

Swap the lemon

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

Plumfits about as well
Figfits about as well
Cherryfits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, sauce, mushroom, port wine. 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.