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Shoulder of Venison to Stew

A rolled shoulder of venison stewed with fat mutton, spices, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Shoulder of Venison to Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Bone and flatten the shoulder of venison.

  2. Lay thin slices of fat mutton over the venison.

  3. Season with white pepper, coarse sea salt, and mixed spices.

  4. Roll it up tightly and bind with tape.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew in a covered pan with beef or mutton gravy for three hours.

  2. Add a little cayenne, allspice, and claret or port near the end.

  3. Remove the tape, place the meat in a dish, and strain the gravy over it.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

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

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

  5. White pepper + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of venison
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow, moist cooking.
Fat mutton
Lards the lean venison, adding moisture and richness as it melts during stewing.
Beef or mutton gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that keeps the meat moist and forms the sauce.
Claret or port
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stew in a covered pan for three hours. Venison is very lean and can turn dry and tough if cooked fast or uncovered. Slow, covered stewing in liquid breaks down connective tissue and keeps the meat moist.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, pepper, allspice, beef):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, pepper, allspice, beef. 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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