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Side of a Buck Collared and Smoked

A venison collar cured with vinegar, spices, bacon, clarified butter, baked, and sealed with suet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Side of a Buck Collared and Smoked

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the venison

  1. Hang the venison in a cool, airy place until the weather permits.

  2. Wipe it clean, remove all bones and sinews, and take off the outer skin.

  3. Rub the vinegar thoroughly into the meat and cut it into three or four pieces.

  4. Cut slips of bacon half an inch wide and insert them into the venison three inches apart.

Cure and collar

  1. Mix the white pepper, cloves, mace, coarse sea salt, common salt, and coarse sugar, then rub this mixture over the venison pieces.

  2. Roll the pieces tightly and place them in a deep jar with bay leaves and any remaining seasoning.

Bake and seal

  1. Cover the venison with clarified butter and bake in a slow oven (300°F/150°C) until tender.

  2. Once cooled, pour melted mutton suet over the venison to exclude air and seal with bladder and leather.

Serve

  1. To serve, place the jar in boiling water for ten minutes to warm the collar, then remove it whole.

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 + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Forms the main body of the collar, becoming tender during slow baking.
Sweet fat bacon
Adds moisture and richness as it melts into the lean meat.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness to the cure.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps tenderise the meat and brighten its flavour.
Cloves
Contributes aroma and warm spice notes to the cure.

The step that matters

Slow baking until tender. Baking at a low, steady temperature lets connective tissue break down gradually, so the meat becomes tender without drying out. Too high a heat toughens the meat and drives out moisture.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, vinegar, clove, mace, sugar, butter, mutton):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, clove, mace, sugar, butter, mutton. 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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