Cumberland Sauce
Redcurrant jelly loosened with port and sharpened with orange, mustard and ginger. Cold, clear, and the correct thing with any cold meat.
Storing and Planning Ahead
Refrigerated in a sealed jar for 6 weeks. Do not freeze.
Making Cumberland Sauce
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Pare the zest from one orange and the lemon with a peeler, avoiding all the white pith, and cut it into hair-fine strips.
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Cover the strips with cold water, bring to the boil, drain, and repeat once more with fresh water. Drain and set aside.
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Squeeze the juice of both oranges and the lemon and strain it.
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Melt the redcurrant jelly in a pan over low heat, whisking until it is completely smooth with no lumps.
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Whisk in the mustard powder, ginger, cayenne and salt.
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Add the port and the strained juice and simmer 12 minutes, until slightly syrupy and reduced by about a quarter.
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Stir in the blanched zest, take it off the heat and cool completely before serving.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Tips for Success
- Blanch the zest twice. Otherwise it turns bitter as the sauce reduces.
- Cut the zest by hand — grated zest vanishes.
- Serve it cold. It is not a gravy.
Why the Method Is What It Is
Blanch the zest strips before they go in, twice, in changes of water. Citrus pith and raw zest carry a bitterness that concentrates as the sauce reduces, and two quick blanches take it out entirely while leaving the perfume. Cut the zest into hair-fine julienne with a knife rather than grating it, because grated zest disappears into the sauce and the whole point is that you can see and bite the strips. And it is served cold, always — warm Cumberland sauce is just gravy that has lost its way.
Good Alongside
Cold ham · Raised game pie · Venison
Quick Answers
How long does Cumberland Sauce take to make?
10 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking, so at least 30 minutes. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 8.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: all the alcohol is counted, though some is lost in cooking. The calories include 3 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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