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Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison seasoned with salt, pepper, butter, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the haunch of venison with salt and pepper.

  3. Rub the meat with butter and sprinkle with herbs.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the haunch in a roasting pan and roast for several hours until cooked to your liking.

  2. Let the meat rest before carving and serving.

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. Thyme + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + rosemarytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Butter + thymetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,758 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison haunch
Forms the main meat, providing the dish's rich, gamey flavor and firm texture when roasted.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor, helps keep the surface moist, and promotes gentle browning.
Herbs
Thyme and rosemary add aromatic flavor that infuses the meat's surface during roasting.

The step that matters

Roast until cooked to your liking. Venison is very lean, so it dries out and toughens quickly if overcooked. Checking doneness during the long roast helps keep the meat juicy.

Swap the rosemary

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

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Rosemarythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, butter, thyme. 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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