Why it works: Flour and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Venison Hashed
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Cut the venison into small slices.
Place the trimmings and bones in a saucepan with enough water to cover them.
Stew the trimmings and bones for an hour.
Strain the liquid into a stew pan.
Make the hash base
Add bits of butter rolled in flour and any leftover gravy to the stew pan.
Stir in currant jelly.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Add the sliced meat to the stew pan.
Keep the stew warm.
Fry the steaks and make the sauce
Heat ½ cup of butter in a pan for the fried venison steak.
Rub the steaks with salt and pepper.
Dip the steaks in flour or rolled crackers.
Fry the steaks until rich brown on both sides.
Place the fried steaks on a dish and cover.
Dredge 1 tablespoon of flour into the butter in the pan.
Stir the mixture until brown without burning.
Add ⅓ cup of boiling water mixed with 1 tablespoon of dissolved currant jelly.
Stir for a few minutes.
Strain the sauce over the meat.
Serve.
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 + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,002 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Pepper + wheattop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together984 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 meat
- Forms the main body of the hash, providing the meaty texture and flavour.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and helps the fried steaks and sauce brown.
- Flour
- Thickens the stew and the sauce, and coats the steaks to help them brown.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the rich, gamey meat.
- Gravy from previous venison
- Adds concentrated meat flavour and body to the stewed base.
The step that matters
Stir the flour and butter until brown without burning. Browning flour in fat builds a nutty, deep colour and thickens the sauce. Past dark brown it turns bitter and loses its thickening power, so it needs steady stirring over moderate heat.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, meat, butter, flour, pepper, wheat):
- Lemonfits better
- Avocadofits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, meat, butter, flour, pepper, wheat. 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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