Why it works: Venison and mutton work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
A Venison Pasty
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
Bone the venison and season it well with mace, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Place the venison in a deep pot with the sliced mutton and boil over the venison.
Pour in the red wine and cover with puff pastry.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for two hours.
Transfer the venison to a dish and pour the gravy over it.
Top with one pound of butter.
Roll out puff pastry about half an inch thick for the edge of the dish.
Roll out a thicker lid for the top and place it on the dish.
Optionally, roll out another thin lid and cut it into shapes to decorate the top.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together167 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,599 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Red wine + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,075 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavorful during the long slow bake.
- Mutton
- Adds rich meaty flavor and body to the gravy as it cooks down.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and depth, helping build the flavor of the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, contributing flavor and a silky texture to the dish.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, crisp crust that browns in the hot oven and encloses the filling.
The step that matters
Covering the dish with pastry before baking. The pastry seals in moisture and heat so the meat cooks gently in its own juices. If the lid is not sealed around the edges, steam escapes, the gravy dries out, and the pastry may not puff or brown evenly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, red wine, butter, pepper):
- Rosemaryfits better
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, red wine, butter, pepper. 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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