Why it works: Arrowroot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 553 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Wine Sauce No. 3
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine water and sugar, and bring to a boil.
Dissolve arrowroot in a small amount of cold water, then add to the boiling mixture.
Stir in essence of lemon and cinnamon.
Remove from heat and add white wine (or rum or brandy).
Serve
Serve warm or cold as a sauce.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Arrowroot + lemontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together553 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Arrowroot + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together166 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,779 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Arrowroot
- Thickens the boiling liquid into a smooth, glossy sauce.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and body to the sauce.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and a wine flavour added off the heat.
The step that matters
Add the arrowroot slurry to the boiling mixture. Arrowroot must be dissolved in cold water first so it does not clump. It thickens when the liquid is hot, so the mixture should be boiling when it is added and stirred in well.
Flavor stand-ins for the arrowroot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cinnamon, white wine):
- Arrowrootthe original
- Sweet potatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Shallotabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cinnamon, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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