Name: Game and Gravy
Ingredients: hare; port wine (or burgundy); nutmeg; red-currant jelly

Why it works: Port wine and currant work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Game and Gravy

Ingredients

hare
port wine (or burgundy)
nutmeg
red-currant jelly

Directions

Boil the soup until hot, ensuring the hare is not overcooked.
If using port wine, reserve the dregs for flavor.
If using burgundy or claret, add a pinch of nutmeg and a little extra red-currant jelly for sweetness.
Serve the hare in the soup with the wine 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.

Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together356 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Nutmeg + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,983 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Port wine + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together462 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).