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Potted Venison

A preserved venison made by seasoning, baking, and storing in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Potted Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mutton

  1. Cut open the shoulder of mutton three inches above the knuckle and three to four inches on the underside down to the bone.

  2. Fill the trenches with minced eschalots and Port wine lees.

  3. Sew the skin over and hang the meat in a cool room to season for nine days.

  4. Rub the meat with coarse sea salt, sugar, allspice, and nutmeg, turning and rubbing daily for another week.

Cook and potted

  1. Bake the meat until cooked, then let it cool.

  2. Pound the lean meat separately, removing sinews and strings, and mix with the fat to create a smooth mass.

  3. Add fresh butter if needed and season to taste with cloves, mace, cayenne, and bay leaf.

  4. Fill pots and jars with the mixture, cover with clarified butter and paper, and store in a dry, cool place.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton shoulder
Provides the bulk of the meat, which is pounded and mixed with its fat into the potted mass.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the curing rub.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness to the cure.
Thyme
Adds herbal aroma to the seasoned meat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the smooth mass and seals the top of the pots.

The step that matters

Pounding the lean meat with the fat. Lean meat must be separated from sinews and strings and worked until smooth, so the mixture spreads evenly and feels silky rather than stringy or grainy once chilled.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, port wine, marjoram, sugar, allspice, nutmeg, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, port wine, marjoram, sugar, allspice, nutmeg, clove. 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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