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Hashed Pennon

A venison hash made with gravy, butter, flour, and red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Mutton and venison work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Hashed Pennon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. If you have leftover gravy, use it; otherwise, simmer bones and trimmings in water for 1 hour.

  2. Melt butter in a stew-pan, then add enough flour to absorb the butter and stir well.

  3. Gradually add the strained gravy and red currant jelly, bringing it to a boil.

  4. Skim and strain the sauce through a sieve.

Finish the hash

  1. Add the venison to the sauce and warm it gently without boiling.

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. Mutton + venisontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + venisontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  5. Red currant + venisontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together81 recipes

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

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
Is the main protein, warmed gently in the sauce so it stays tender.
Butter
Carries flavor and, with flour, forms the base that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Absorbs the melted butter and thickens the gravy as it cooks.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a touch of acidity that balances the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Warm the venison without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and dries the surface, so the venison should be heated gently in the sauce until just warmed through.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Currantfits about as well
  2. Red currantthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Pumpkinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, butter, flour, venison. 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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