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Haunch of Venison Braised

A slow‑baked venison haunch with carrots, onions, celery, spices, red wine, and a breadcrumb‑cinnamon‑sugar crust, served with cherry sauce, stewed prunes, and potato quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison Braised

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.

Braise

  1. Trim and remove the spine bone from the haunch of venison.

  2. Place the venison in a braising pan with carrots, onions, celery, parsley, cloves, and mace.

  3. Moisten with red wine and enough broth to cover the surface.

  4. Bring to a boil over high heat.

  5. Transfer to a 350°F (175°C) oven to braise gently for 5 to 6 hours.

  6. Moisten the surface frequently during braising.

Make the crust

  1. Transfer the venison to a deep baking dish.

  2. Add 1 pint of its broth underneath the venison.

  3. Trim the venison neatly.

  4. Prepare the crust by mixing ground bread, cinnamon, sugar, and enough port wine to form a thick paste.

  5. Cover the haunch with the paste.

  6. Smooth the paste with a knife.

  7. Place the haunch in a hot closet to dry.

Serve

  1. Place the venison on a dish.

  2. Pour cherry sauce over the venison.

  3. Garnish with stewed prunes and potato quenelles.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 body of the dish, becoming tender through long, gentle braising.
Red wine
Adds acidity and flavour that tenderise the meat during braising.
Broth
Provides moisture that keeps the meat from drying during the long braise.
Ground bread
Thickens the port and spice mixture into a paste that binds to the surface.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown and dry as it bakes.
Port wine
Moistens the bread to form a paste and adds sweetness and depth.

The step that matters

Braising for 5 to 6 hours at low heat. Connective tissue in a large cut like a haunch breaks down slowly at gentle temperatures. Too much heat or too short a time leaves the meat tough, while keeping the surface moist with liquid prevents drying.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, clove, red wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, carrot, onion, celery, parsley, clove, red wine. 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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