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Roast Venison

Roast Venison is a dish of venison roasted and served with currant jelly and wine gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Roast Venison

Why it works: Vinegar and red wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 575 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Roast Venison

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.

Prepare

  1. Hang the venison for several days before use, preferably in winter.

  2. If frozen, use it as is.

  3. Wash the meat all over with vinegar and rub it in well.

  4. Wipe the meat and rub it thoroughly with butter or salad oil.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the venison for about 12 minutes per pound at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve with currant jelly.

  3. Mix 1 tablespoon of currant jelly into the gravy with a glass of claret or red wine.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Currant + red winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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, becoming tender and flavourful as it roasts, especially after hanging.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey flavour of the meat and gravy.
Claret or red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the gravy, helping to build its flavour.
Butter or salad oil
Adds fat that carries seasoning and helps the surface brown during roasting.

The step that matters

Roast the venison for about 12 minutes per pound at 350°F (175°C).. Venison is very lean, so overcooking dries it out quickly. Timing by weight and checking the internal temperature helps keep the meat moist and tender.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, vinegar, butter, red wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, butter, 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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