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Maine Venison Stew

"A slow cooked easy recipe, all ingredients are diced and thrown into the crock pot with no pre-cooking prep work. A hearty tasting stew that is not 'gamey', it would work just as well with beef."

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Why it works: Venison and meat work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 126 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep20 min
Cook9 hr

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Season the venison stew meat with salt and pepper. Brown it in batches in a dry hot skillet for about 8 minutes, turning until no pink remains, then transfer to a slow cooker.

  2. Add the diced onions, celery, carrots, and potatoes to the slow cooker. Add the sliced mushrooms now if using them (optional).

  3. Dissolve the 3 bouillon cubes in the 1 cup water, then pour into the slow cooker with the beef broth and browning and seasoning sauce. Stir well.

  4. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours, until the meat and vegetables are tender. Check that the thickest pieces of meat reach at least 145°F (63°C), then let rest 3 minutes.

  5. Mix the cornstarch with a splash of cold water until smooth. Stir it into the stew with the frozen green peas (optional), then cover and cook on high for about 15 minutes until thickened.

  6. Taste the stew, adjust the salt and pepper, and serve hot.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Venison + meattop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together126 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Potato + oniontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

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

  4. Potato + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,105 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, meat, potato, onion, carrot, beef, sauce):

  1. Celerythe original
  2. Garlicabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, meat, potato, onion, carrot, beef, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).