Name: Orange Gravy Sauce, for Wild Ducks, Woodcocks, Snipes, Widgeon, and Teal
Ingredients: ½ pint veal gravy; 6 leaves basil; 1 small onion; meat from 1 partridge or pigeon (optional)

Why it works: Basil and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,600 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Orange Gravy Sauce, for Wild Ducks, Woodcocks, Snipes, Widgeon, and Teal

Ingredients

½ pint veal gravy
6 leaves basil
1 small onion
meat from 1 partridge or pigeon (optional)

Directions

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, heat the veal gravy over medium heat.
Add the basil leaves and small onion to the gravy.

Add the meat

If using, pound the meat from the partridge or pigeon in a mortar.
Add the pounded meat to the saucepan when thickening the sauce.

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.

Basil + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,600 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Onion + meattop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + meattop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,890 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + basiltop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together345 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal gravy: Forms the savory liquid base that gives the sauce its body and main flavor.
Basil: Adds a fresh, aromatic herbal flavor to the sauce.
Onion: Adds aromatic depth and mild sweetness as it softens into the sauce.