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Sauce

Game Sauce

A sauce made with chives, juniper berries, sugar, mustard, oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chive and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 587 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Game Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the chives, powdered juniper berries, sugar, and mustard.

  2. Slowly add the oil and vinegar while stirring until well combined.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Chive + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together587 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Chive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Mustard
Adds sharp flavour and helps emulsify the oil and vinegar into a smooth sauce.
Oil
Provides fat and body, giving the sauce a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the oil.
Powdered juniper berries
Contributes a resinous, piney aroma that suits game meats.

The step that matters

Adding the oil and vinegar slowly while stirring. Adding oil gradually while whisking lets it disperse into tiny droplets held by the mustard, forming a stable emulsion. Dumping it in at once can cause the sauce to separate.

Swap the chive

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, mustard, vinegar, pepper. 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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