Why it works: Currant and port wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Roast Yekisok
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the venison
Trim the haunch of venison, removing all dark skin and dried surface.
Wipe it thoroughly; if it is getting dry, dip cloths in vinegar and wipe again.
Cover the haunch with a thick sheet of buttered white cartridge paper and tie it securely.
Baste the venison to prevent the paper from burning.
Roast and finish
Half an hour before the meat is done, remove the paper, sprinkle salt over the meat, dredge with flour, and baste liberally with butter.
Pour the fat from the dripping pan, keeping any brown gravy, and add 1 cup of boiling water to it.
Boil down the mixture, adding only salt.
Serve the gravy in a tureen.
Put a frill of white paper around the knuckle and serve very hot.
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.
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Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together356 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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, firm meat that is the main body of the dish and carries the roasting.
- Butter
- Adds fat that keeps the surface moist and helps it brown during basting.
- Flour
- Dredged over the meat, it helps form a browned, crisp crust on the surface.
- Red-currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey flavour of the meat.
The step that matters
Removing the paper before the end. Paper protects the meat while it roasts, so taking it off half an hour before it is done lets the surface brown and crisp. Removing it too early dries the meat, and leaving it on too long stops browning.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour, sauce, mutton, port wine, pepper):
- Red currantfits better
- Plumfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, sauce, mutton, port 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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