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 Haunch
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
Prepare the venison as you would mutton.
Place it in a baking pan and lard with a little bacon.
Roast
Add ½ cup of water and ⅓ cup of red wine.
Season with salt and cayenne pepper.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until cooked through.
Serve with or without gravy.
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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Red wine + peppertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,075 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Venison + peppertop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together955 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 haunch
- The lean main meat, which becomes tender and sliceable when cooked through.
- Bacon
- Its fat melts into the lean venison, adding moisture and savoury flavour.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the cooking liquid and the pan juices.
The step that matters
Bake until cooked through. Venison is very lean, so it dries out and toughens if overcooked. The larding bacon helps, but checking for doneness rather than relying on a fixed time keeps the meat moist and tender.
“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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