Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Venison Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the steak
Wash the venison steak in warm water, avoiding soaking it.
Pound the steak with a wooden mallet.
Nick the outside skin to prevent curling.
Season the steak with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Dredge the steak in flour.
Brown and cook
Heat 2 tablespoons of fresh butter in a frying pan until hot enough to brown.
Add the steak to the pan and brown on both sides.
Cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes.
Transfer the steak to a warm chafing dish.
Make the gravy and serve
Add ½ cup of hot water to the pan and bring the water to a boil.
Stir the boiling water from the bottom, then add 1 tablespoon of currant jelly.
Pour the gravy over the steak.
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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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 steak
- Is the main protein, cooked by browning and then gentle covered cooking to stay tender.
- Flour
- Coats the steak so it browns well and helps thicken the pan gravy.
- Fresh butter
- Conducts heat for browning the steak and adds richness to the pan.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the savory gravy.
The step that matters
Browning the steak in hot butter. If the pan is not hot enough, the steak steams instead of browning, leaving a pale surface and less flavor. Browning depends on high surface heat, so the butter should be hot before the steak goes in.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, flour, butter):
- Lemonfits better
- Red currantfits better
- Limefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, flour, butter. 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.
More venison steak recipes
You might also like
Roast Venison20 recipes
Venison Pasty7 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.