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Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison wrapped in paper and cooked slowly, served with a gravy made from its own drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the haunch with lukewarm vinegar and water.

  2. Rub the haunch well with butter or lard.

  3. Cover the top and sides with greased foolscap paper.

  4. Coat the haunch with a paste made of flour and water, half an inch thick.

  5. Lay a large sheet of thin wrapping paper over the haunch.

  6. Lay another sheet of stout foolscap over the wrapping paper.

  7. Tie everything down with greased pack-thread.

  8. Prepare the wrapped haunch the day before roasting.

Steam the haunch

  1. Place the haunch in a dripping pan with 2 cups of boiling water.

  2. Insert another pan above to keep the haunch in the steam.

  3. Leave the haunch in the pan for an hour.

  4. Check that the paper is not scorching.

  5. Wet the paper with hot water and a ladleful of gravy.

  6. Cover the haunch and let it cook for another hour and a half.

Brown and baste

  1. Remove the papers and paste from the haunch.

  2. Test the meat with a skewer to check doneness.

  3. Close the door of the roasting vessel.

  4. Let the haunch brown for half an hour.

  5. Baste the haunch four times with wine and butter.

  6. Dredge the haunch with flour.

  7. Rub the haunch with butter to create a froth.

  8. Transfer the haunch to a hot dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Skim the gravy left in the dripping pan, then strain it.

  2. Thicken the gravy with browned flour.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons of currant jelly to the gravy.

  4. Add a glass of wine to the gravy.

  5. Add pepper and coarse sea salt to taste to the gravy.

  6. Boil the gravy for a moment.

  7. Serve the gravy in a gravy boat.

  8. Roast the venison for a quarter of an hour per pound.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

  3. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Wine + curranttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 haunch
Lean meat that is cooked slowly and gently so it stays tender and moist.
Butter or lard
Adds fat that carries moisture and encourages browning and a crisp, frothy surface.
Flour paste
Forms a protective shell that slows drying and keeps the meat moist under the paper.
Wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the basting liquid and the finished gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and gloss to the gravy, balancing its savoury flavour.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.

The step that matters

Keeping the paper wrapping moist while steaming. If the paper dries out and scorches, the meat surface overheats and tastes bitter. Wetting the paper with hot water and gravy keeps it pliable and lets steam keep the haunch moist.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour, wine, pepper):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Grapefits better
  3. Red currantfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, wine, 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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