Name: The Old Currant Sauce for Venison
Ingredients: 1 ounce currants, cleaned; 3 tablespoons grated bread; 1 walnut-sized piece of butter; 4 cloves; ⅓ cup port wine

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The Old Currant Sauce for Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the currants in water for a few minutes.
Add the grated bread, butter, cloves, and port wine.
Stir until it boils, then serve hot.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Clove + port winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together914 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,499 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants: Soften in boiling water and provide the sweet, fruity flavour that defines the sauce.
Grated bread: Thickens the sauce as it absorbs liquid and softens.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the sauce.
Port wine: Adds sweetness, depth and aroma to the sauce.

Swap the currant

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

Figfits better
Pearfits better
Applefits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, walnut, butter, clove, 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.