Why it works: Port wine and clove work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 914 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Hashed Mutton Uke Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine the rich gravy, port wine, catsup, pounded sugar, minced onion, and cloves.
Boil the mixture for about 12 minutes.
Strain the sauce and return it to the pan.
Finish the hash
Add the sliced mutton and let it simmer for 3 minutes.
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.
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Port wine + clovetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together914 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,901 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Port wine + muttontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together344 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Onion + muttontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,531 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Port wine + oniontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,148 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rich gravy
- Forms the liquid base and gives the sauce its body and savoury depth.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness, acidity and rich aromatic flavour to the sauce as it reduces.
- Pounded sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the port and catsup.
- Sliced mutton
- Supplies the meat, which softens and absorbs flavour while simmering in the sauce.
The step that matters
Boiling the sauce for about 12 minutes. Boiling reduces the liquid, concentrating flavour and thickening the sauce. Boiling too long over-reduces it, making it salty-tasting and overly thick, so timing matters before the meat goes in.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, sugar, clove, mutton):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, sugar, clove, 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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