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To Roast Venison

A venison saddle marinated with vinegar, pepper, salt, and herbs, coated in salt pork and bread crumbs, then roasted with claret wine and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly in several waters.

  2. Rub it with vinegar, red pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Lard with strips of salt pork rolled in seasoned bread crumbs.

  4. Season with sweet marjoram, sweet basil, and pepper.

  5. Rub the whole with currant jelly.

  6. Pour claret wine over the venison.

  7. Let it stand overnight.

Paste and roast

  1. In the morning, cover the venison with a paste made of flour and water, half an inch thick.

  2. Cover with soft paper and secure with strings.

  3. Place the venison in a dripping pan with claret, butter, and water, and baste often.

Finish and serve

  1. Half an hour before serving, remove the paste and paper.

  2. Baste with butter.

  3. Dredge with flour to brown.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of venison
The lean main meat that is slowly roasted and served.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps tenderize the surface of the meat.
Salt pork
Lards the lean meat, adding fat and moisture during roasting.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and helps the surface take on a glaze.
Flour and water paste
Encloses the meat, slowing moisture loss while it roasts.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the pan and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Removing the paste and paper half an hour before serving. The paste and paper block heat and moisture loss from the surface. Once removed, basting with butter and dusting with flour lets the exposed surface brown through the Maillard reaction. Removing them too early leaves the meat pale and soft; too late leaves no time to brown.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, bread, marjoram, basil):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, bread, marjoram, basil. 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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