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Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison prepared with a flour paste, wrapped in paper, and served with a gravy of wine, butter, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the haunch with lukewarm vinegar and water, then rub it well with butter or lard to soften the skin.

  2. Cover the top and sides with greased foolscap paper.

  3. Coat it with a paste of flour and water, half an inch thick.

  4. Lay a large sheet of thin wrapping paper over this, followed by another sheet of stout foolscap.

  5. Tie everything down with greased packing thread.

  6. Prepare this the day before roasting.

Roast

  1. About three hours before serving, place the haunch in a dripping pan with 2 cups of boiling water.

  2. Insert another pan above to keep in the steam and ensure a good fire.

  3. Leave it for an hour.

  4. Check that the paper is not scorching.

  5. Wet it with hot water and a ladleful of gravy.

  6. Cover it.

  7. Let it cook for another hour and a half.

  8. Remove the papers and paste.

  9. Test the meat with a skewer.

  10. If it goes in easily, close the door.

  11. Let it brown for half an hour.

Baste and serve

  1. Baste freely four times with wine and butter.

  2. Dredge with flour.

  3. Rub with butter to create a froth.

  4. Transfer the haunch to a hot dish.

  5. Skim the gravy left in the dripping pan.

  6. Strain it.

  7. Thicken with browned flour.

  8. Add 2 teaspoons of currant jelly, a glass of wine, pepper, and salt.

  9. Boil briefly.

  10. Serve in a gravy boat.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Venison haunch
Lean meat that the paper-and-paste casing protects from drying out during the long roast.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, and basting with it promotes browning and a golden froth.
Flour
Forms the protective paste and, browned, thickens the gravy.
Wine
Basting adds acidity and flavour, and it enriches the finished gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity tartness that balances the rich game flavour of the gravy.

The step that matters

Testing the meat with a skewer. Venison is lean and dries out quickly, so checking doneness by skewer before browning prevents overcooking. Scorching of the protective paper is also worth watching, since the paste shields the meat from direct heat.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, vinegar, butter, flour, wine, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, butter, flour, wine, 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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