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Baked Saddle of Venison

A roasted saddle of venison cooked with salt pork, carrots, onion, spices, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Saddle of Venison

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly, ensuring no hairs remain.

  2. Lard the saddle by placing two rows of salt pork strips on each side.

Braise and roast

  1. In a large dripping pan, layer the sliced carrots, onion, and salt pork, then add bay leaves, cloves, allspice, lemon slices, salt, and pepper.

  2. Place the saddle in the pan and pour in the boiling stock and butter.

  3. Boil on the stove for about 15 minutes.

  4. Transfer to a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) and bake, basting every 5 minutes.

  5. Cook until medium rare, so the blood runs when cut; serve with jelly or wine sauce.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of venison
Lean meat that is cooked to medium rare, where it stays tender and juicy.
Salt pork
Fatty strips that baste the lean venison from within, adding moisture and richness as they melt.
Stock
Liquid that gently steams the roast and forms the base for pan juices.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooking liquid and helps browning.
Onion
Sweetness and aroma that flavour the cooking liquid as it softens.

The step that matters

Cook until medium rare. Venison is very lean, so it dries out and toughens quickly above medium rare. Frequent basting and checking the internal doneness help keep the meat moist and tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, 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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