Name: The Gravy
Ingredients: 2 cups beef gravy; ½ cup port wine; hot currant jelly

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 ↓

The Gravy

Ingredients

2 cups beef gravy
½ cup port wine
hot currant jelly

Directions

Add the port wine to the beef gravy.
Pour the mixture through a strainer.
Serve the gravy with hot currant jelly.

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.

Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together626 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Beef + curranttop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,464 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Port wine: Adds sweetness, depth and a fruity aroma to the gravy.
Beef gravy: Provides the savoury base and body of the sauce.
Currant jelly: Adds sweetness and a tart fruity note to balance the savoury gravy.