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Roast Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison wrapped in salt pork, coated with flour paste, and served with a claret and currant jelly gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the venison

  1. Wash the venison in lukewarm water mixed with vinegar.

  2. Season the venison with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Wrap the venison with slices of salt pork.

  4. Refrigerate the wrapped venison until ready to roast.

  5. Make a thick paste of flour and water.

  6. Cover the roast with the flour paste.

Roast

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cover the roast with an inverted pan to retain steam.

  3. Add hot water and vinegar to the dripping pan.

  4. Roast the venison for 15 minutes per pound.

  5. Remove the flour paste and salt pork from the roast.

  6. Baste the roast frequently with the pan juices.

  7. Baste the roast with butter and claret until browned and tender.

  8. Transfer the roast to a hot dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Skim the pan juices.

  2. Strain the pan juices.

  3. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  4. Add currant jelly to the gravy.

  5. Add claret to the gravy.

  6. Season the gravy to taste.

  7. Boil the gravy well after adding jelly and wine.

  8. Serve the roast immediately.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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
Forms the main meat, which is firm and lean, so it needs protection and basting to stay moist.
Salt pork
Wrapped around the meat to add fat and moisture as it roasts.
Flour
Makes a paste that shields the surface and later thickens the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the roast brown during basting.
Claret
Adds acidity and flavour to the basting liquid and the gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the gravy, balancing the wine's acidity.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy well after adding jelly and wine. Boiling reduces the thin liquid, concentrates the flavour and lets the jelly dissolve fully so the gravy is smooth and not watery.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Red currantfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, flour, butter. 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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