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Baked Venison

A roasted venison dish finished with a spiced gravy made from the meat's own stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Venison

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the venison

  1. Trim the venison and wash it in tepid water, then dry it.

  2. Rub the meat with butter, beef dripping, or lard.

  3. Cover the meat with a thick paste of flour and water, about ½ inch thick.

  4. Place the meat in a baking pan with boiling stock or gravy.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Bake, basting every 10 minutes.

  3. Thirty minutes before cooking is complete, remove the paste cover.

Make and finish the gravy

  1. For the gravy, simmer venison scraps in cold water, seasoning with cayenne, salt, cloves, and nutmeg.

  2. Remove scum as it rises and strain the gravy when reduced by half.

  3. After removing the meat, pour the gravy into the baking pan and stir in blended browned flour.

  4. Boil once and serve separately.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Is the main meat that becomes tender and juicy during slow baking.
Butter, beef dripping, or lard
Coats the meat with fat, helping it stay moist and brown during baking.
All-purpose flour
Forms a thick paste crust that shields the meat and holds in moisture.
Boiling stock, gravy, or beef dripping
Adds liquid and savory flavor to the pan and the resulting gravy.
Blended browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, deeper flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming the gravy and reducing it by half. Scum rising from simmering meat can make the gravy cloudy and bitter if not removed. Reducing concentrates flavor and body, so stopping at the right point gives a rich, well-seasoned gravy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, beef, pepper, nutmeg. 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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