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Baked Saddle of Venison

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 with strips of salt pork, placing two rows on each side.

Roast

  1. In a large dripping pan, layer the sliced carrots, onion, and additional salt pork. Add bay leaves, cloves, allspice, and lemon slices; season with salt and pepper.

  2. Place the saddle of venison in the pan and pour in the hot stock and butter.

  3. Bring to a 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

Venison saddle
Is the main cut of meat, providing the body of the roast.
Salt pork
Adds fat and moisture to the lean venison through larding and melts into the pan juices.
Stock
Provides moisture in the pan, keeping the meat from drying out as it roasts.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the pan liquid, aiding browning and flavour.
Carrots
Flavour their sweetness and aroma into the pan juices as they cook.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the pan juices as it softens.

The step that matters

Cook to medium rare. Venison is very lean, so overcooking dries it and toughens the muscle fibres. Pulling it when the centre is still pink keeps it tender and juicy.

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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