Why it works: Flour and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 340 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Saddle of Venison
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Wipe the venison with a towel dipped in warm water.
Lard the venison thickly with salt pork.
Place the venison on a rack in a dripping pan.
Roast
Roast in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 15 minutes per pound, basting every 10 minutes with melted butter.
Cover with buttered paper while roasting to prevent drying out.
When half done, season with salt and black pepper.
Make the gravy
Add flour to the fat in the pan and stir until brown.
Gradually add stock, stirring constantly until it boils.
Remove from heat, then add salt, pepper, and currant jelly.
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.
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Flour + watercresstop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together340 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Pepper + watercresstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together983 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,933 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
- Saddle of venison
- Is the main cut, and its lean meat is cooked through to be served tender.
- Salt pork
- Larding adds fat through the lean venison, keeping it moist and juicy during roasting.
- Melted butter
- Basting adds fat to the surface, helping it brown and stay moist in the hot oven.
- Flour
- Browned in the pan fat, it thickens the stock into a gravy.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy, carrying the pan juices.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich gravy.
The step that matters
Browning the flour in the pan fat. Flour must cook in the fat until it turns brown, which develops nutty flavour and colour and removes raw starch taste before the stock is added. Adding stock too early leaves lumps and a pale, pasty gravy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pork, butter, pepper, flour, watercress):
- Lemonfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Limefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pork, butter, pepper, flour, watercress. 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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