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Game and Gravy

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Game and Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a jar, combine port wine, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, lemon juice, and onion.

  2. Thicken the mixture with arrowroot instead of brown thickening.

  3. Add red-currant jelly and dissolve it in the mixture.

  4. Place the jar in a large saucepan of boiling water, ensuring it is tightly sealed.

  5. Boil for 1 to 1.5 hours until done.

  6. Prepare stuffing as for roast hare, roll into small balls, and fry in boiling fat until cooked.

  7. Drain the balls and heat them in the oven before adding to the dish.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cinnamon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together166 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + arrowroottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, cinnamon, clove, lemon, onion, arrowroot):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, cinnamon, clove, lemon, onion, arrowroot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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