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Wine Sauce for Venison or Hare

A wine-based sauce made with claret or port, mutton gravy, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Wine Sauce for Venison or Hare

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the Claret or Port Wine, Mutton Gravy, and Currant Jelly.

  2. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil.

  3. Serve in a sauceboat.

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. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Port wine + muttontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Mutton + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Claret or port wine
Provides acidity and fruity depth that balances the rich flavour of the venison.
Mutton gravy
Adds savoury body and meaty flavour, thickening the sauce as it reduces.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity tang that offsets the acidity of the wine.

The step that matters

Bringing the mixture to a gentle boil. Boiling too hard can reduce the liquid too quickly and make the sauce overly thick or harsh-tasting. A gentle boil lets the jelly dissolve fully and the flavours blend smoothly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Red currantfits about as well
  2. Currantthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, mutton. 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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