Why it works: Venison and red wine work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 167 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Venison Pastj/
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the meat
Bone the venison and cut it into slices.
To tenderize the meat, wash it in warm milk and water, dry it, rub with vinegar, and hang for several days.
Before cooking, dip the meat in lukewarm water and dry it.
Season the meat and lay the fat on top.
Assemble and bake
Line a dish with puff pastry and cover it with a thick crust.
Add butter and water into the pie, then seal the edges well.
Make gravy from the bones and pour it hot into the pasty with red wine.
Bake for 2 hours at 400°F (200°C).
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.
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Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together167 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + red winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,599 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Provides the main meat, whose slices become tender and rich during slow baking.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a crisp, flaky crust that browns and seals in the filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the meat moist as it bakes.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy poured into the pasty.
The step that matters
Sealing the edges well. A tight seal keeps steam and juices inside the pastry, so the meat stays moist and the gravy does not leak out during the long bake.
“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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