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Stewed Venison

A stew of venison cooked with water, lard, wine, currant jelly, butter, mustard, pickle, celery, and mushroom catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stewed Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Cut the venison into thick slices.

  2. Place in an oven with 2 spoonfuls of water and a piece of lard.

  3. Cook until nearly done, then pour off the gravy.

  4. Baste with 1 tablespoon of butter, pepper, and salt.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a chafing dish, add 1 cup of water, ⅓ cup of red wine, ⅓ cup of currant jelly, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 teaspoon of mustard, chopped pickle, chopped celery, and mushroom catsup.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Red wine + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison (in the method)
Is the main meat that is cooked until nearly done and then basted.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the sauce as it melts into the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a glossy finish when used to baste and enrich the sauce.
Mushroom catsup
Adds savoury, umami depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until nearly done, then pour off the gravy. Cooking the venison slowly in a little fat and liquid keeps it moist, while pouring off the gravy at the right point stops the pan juices from burning or turning bitter. Removing excess fat also keeps the sauce from becoming greasy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (red wine, butter, mustard, celery, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against red wine, butter, mustard, celery, mushroom, 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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