Name: Marmalade Sauce
Ingredients: ½ pint of water; ⅓ cup of sherry; 2 tablespoons of marmalade; 2 teaspoons of sugar (or to taste); 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Why it works: Sherry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Marmalade Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the water and marmalade, and stir until it boils.
Add the sugar, lemon juice, and sherry, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Serve immediately.

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.

Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,273 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Marmalade: Provides the main citrus flavour and bitter-sweet character of the sauce.
Sugar: Adds sweetness, adjustable to taste, and helps balance the marmalade's bitterness.
Sherry: Adds depth and aroma to the sauce.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the marmalade.