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Sauce

Sweet Sauce for Roast Mutton or Venison

A sweet sauce made with red port, vinegar, cullis, sugar, onion, and cinnamon for roast mutton or venison.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Sweet Sauce for Roast Mutton or Venison

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine red port, vinegar, cullis, sugar, sieved onion, and ground cinnamon.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil before serving.

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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Onion + cinnamontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Red port
Adds sweetness, body and fruity depth to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the sweetness of the sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Onion
Sieved onion adds body and a soft, smooth texture.
Ground cinnamon
Adds a warm, sweet aroma to the sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon. 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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