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Eoast Saddle of Venison

A roasted saddle of venison served hot with a sauce of white stock, Madeira wine, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and madeira wine work together. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the venison

  1. Wipe the meat.

  2. Sprinkle the meat with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Place the meat on a rack in a dripping pan.

  4. Dredge the meat and bottom of the pan with flour.

  5. Add one slice of onion, one slice of carrot, and two stalks of celery to the pan.

Roast

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 50 minutes, basting every 15 minutes.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, add 3 tablespoons of fat from the pan to a saucepan. Stir in 3 tablespoons of flour. Gradually pour in 1 cup of white stock. Bring to a boil. Add ¼ cup of Madeira wine. Add ¼ cup of melted currant jelly. Strain the sauce.

  2. Serve it very hot.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Venison + madeira winetop 21% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together21 recipes
  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 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

Flour
Coats the meat and forms a thickened base for the pan sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and gloss to the finished sauce.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic depth and a touch of acidity to the sauce.
White stock
Provides the liquid that turns the fat and flour into a sauce.

The step that matters

Gradually pour in the stock. Adding liquid slowly while stirring the flour and fat into a smooth roux prevents lumps, so the sauce thickens evenly.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, flour, carrot, celery, sauce, madeira wine):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Turnipbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, flour, carrot, celery, sauce, madeira wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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