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Sauce

Cumberland Sauce

A sauce made from orange rind, orange juice, red currant jelly, port wine, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cumberland Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the orange rind into thin shreds, removing the white pith.

  2. Parboil the orange rind and drain it in a sieve.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the orange juice, red currant jelly, port wine, and cinnamon.

  2. Simmer the mixture together until well combined, then let it cool.

  3. Store in a sealed container for longer preservation.

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.

  1. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Orange + red curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Red currant + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Red currant + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Port wine + cinnamontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Red currant jelly
Provides the main sweetness and a thick, glossy body as it melts into the sauce.
Seville orange juice
Adds bright acidity that balances the sweetness of the jelly and port.
Orange rind
Contributes fragrant citrus oils and a slight bitterness that gives the sauce its character.
Port wine
Adds depth, fruity richness and warmth to the sauce.
Cinnamon
Adds a warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the citrus and fruit flavours.

The step that matters

Parboiling the orange rind. Brief boiling softens the shreds and draws out some bitterness from the pith and peel, so the sauce tastes clean rather than harsh. Boiling too long makes the rind mushy and dulls its fresh citrus aroma.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, red currant, port wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Cinnamonthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, red currant, 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.

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