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Medallions of Venison with Cranberry-Port Sauce

Venison is a naturally lean meat, and although most venison is farm raised, which means it is tender and mild-flavored, it still benefits from long marination. It also has an affinity for the sweetness of fruit and the bold flavor of big wines. Here, it is marinated in a mixture that includes cranberry juice and is served with a sauce made from dried cranberries plumped in port. If you are using wild venison, marinate it for up to 48 hours.

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cranberry and tomato share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 66 recipes mention both. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

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

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By williamssonoma. 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. Cranberry + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Garlic + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together14,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Red wine + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Carrot + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,597 recipes

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

  5. Beef + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,445 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 carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (canola oil, garlic, shallot, beef, cranberry, red wine, vinegar):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Onionbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against canola oil, garlic, shallot, beef, cranberry, red wine, vinegar. 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).