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Port Wine Sauce
1/2 cupful rich brown stock or brown sauce; 1/2 cupful port wine; 1/2 cupful currant jelly; 1 teaspoonful lemon juice; salt; a dash of cayenne; 2 or 3 cloves and whole allspice each; a small stick of cinnamon; a blade of mace. Heat the stock with the spices long enough to extract their flavor; add the melted currant jelly, wine, and salt and pepper. When all are thoroughly hot and well blended, skim out the spices and serve with venison or game.
A classic sweet-sharp game sauce that comes together in about fifteen minutes. The only real technique is patience with the spice infusion and restraint once the wine goes in.
- YieldRoughly a cup and a quarter once it has heated down a little, enough for four to six servings of venison, duck or hare. Start with a small pan and a low flame.
- Brown stockThe original assumes a long-simmered beef or veal stock, or leftover brown sauce (espagnole) thickened with roux. A good reduced beef stock works; if using boxed stock, reduce a cup down to half to concentrate it, since the sauce depends on that depth.
- Infuse, then removeSimmer the whole spices in the stock alone long enough to draw out their flavour, then add the jelly and wine, as the original directs. The spices stay in until the finished sauce is skimmed.
- A blade of maceOne dried piece of the lacy covering of the nutmeg seed, roughly the size of a thumbnail. If only ground mace is available, use a pinch and strain the finished sauce through a fine sieve rather than skimming.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly, not black currant preserve and not jam. It should be firm, clear and tart. Strained raspberry or sour cherry jelly is the nearest substitute; anything sweeter will need extra lemon juice to balance.
- Keep the wine's characterAdd the port off a hard boil and hold the sauce just below a simmer once it is in. Ruby port suits this better than tawny. Boiling it hard costs you the fruit.
- Seasoning orderThe recipe lists salt twice and cayenne once, with the method calling for "salt and pepper"; taste at the end, after the jelly has melted, because the sweetness masks salt. A dash of cayenne means the barest trace.
- FinishingSkim the spices out with a slotted spoon and serve hot in a warmed boat. It thickens as it cools; loosen with a spoonful of stock rather than water when reheating.