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To Hash Cold Venison

A savory hash made from sliced cold venison, simmered with a gravy base and finished with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Hash Cold Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cold venison into small slices.

  2. Place the trimmings and bones in a saucepan and cover with water.

  3. Stew for 1 hour, then strain the liquid into a stewpan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add bits of butter rolled in flour and any leftover gravy.

  2. Stir in some currant jelly and bring to a boil.

Finish

  1. Add the sliced venison and warm it through 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes

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
Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the hash.
Flour
Combined with butter to thicken the liquid into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and smooths the sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the rich meat gravy.
Leftover gravy
Adds concentrated meaty flavor and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Warm the venison without boiling. Cooked meat becomes tough and dry when it is held at a boil. Keeping the sliced venison just below boiling warms it through while it stays tender and juicy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Currantthe original
  3. Red currantfits about as well
  4. Lemonfits less well

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