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To Broil, Venison Steaks

A method for broiling venison steaks with butter, salt, pepper, currant jelly, and optional lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Broil, Venison Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the steaks

  1. Dip the venison steaks in rolled crackers or wheat flour.

  2. Place the steaks over a bright, clear fire of coals.

Broil and make the gravy

  1. Transfer the steaks to a dish to catch the blood.

  2. Turn the steaks on the gridiron and let them broil nicely.

  3. Heat a steak dish and add butter, salt, and pepper.

  4. Mix in currant jelly with hot water or wine.

  5. Lay the steaks in the dish, turning them in the gravy, and serve hot.

Variations

  1. Alternatively, broil the steaks simply and serve with butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. For a variation, lay thin slices of lemon over the steaks after turning them.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison steaks
The main protein, which is browned on the outside while staying tender inside.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the lean venison moist during broiling.
Rolled crackers or wheat flour
Light coating that helps the surface brown and hold juices.
Butter
Enriches the pan sauce and adds richness and flavour.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Turning the steaks on the gridiron. Venison is lean and dries out quickly over direct heat, so it needs a hot, clear fire and careful turning to brown the outside without overcooking the centre.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, wheat, butter, egg, pepper, currant, wine):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Red currantfits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Plumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, wheat, butter, egg, pepper, currant, 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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