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Sauce

Sauce Cumberland,

A cold sauce for game made with shallots, citrus, mustard, wine, currant jelly, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sauce Cumberland,

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mince the shallots and place them in a saucepan with the juice of one lemon, the zest of both lemons, and the zest of the orange cut into fine strips.

  2. Add the water and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture and return it to the saucepan.

  4. Stir in the mustard, Marsala, Port, ground ginger, red currant jelly, lemon juice, orange juice, and vinegar.

  5. Season with pepper, salt, and cayenne.

  6. Bring to a boil, strain again, and serve cold with game or duck.

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. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body, giving the sauce its glossy, thick character.
Marsala wine
Adds deep, fortified wine flavour that rounds out the sharp citrus and vinegar.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and rich fruity depth to balance the acidity.
Lemons
Provide acidity and aromatic oils from the zest for a bright flavour.
Vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that cuts the sweetness of the jelly and wine.
Mixed mustard
Adds pungency and a sharp edge that complements the fruit and wine.

The step that matters

Straining before the final boil. Straining removes the shallot pieces and zest solids so the sauce is smooth. Boiling after adding the jelly and wines can thicken and darken it, so it should be brought to a boil only once the flavours are combined.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, lemon, mustard, wine, port wine, red currant, vinegar):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, lemon, mustard, wine, port wine, red currant, vinegar. 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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