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 Boil Venison Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the grill
Preheat the gridiron over a bright, clear fire.
Rub the grill with a bit of suet.
Dip the venison steaks in rolled crackers or wheat flour.
Cook and serve
Place the steaks on the gridiron and cook one side until done.
Carefully transfer the steaks to a dish to catch the juices.
Turn the steaks and broil the other side nicely.
Heat a steak dish and add butter, salt, and pepper.
Mix currant jelly with hot water or wine and pour over the steaks.
Turn the steaks in the gravy and serve hot.
Alternatively, serve simply broiled with butter, pepper, and salt, or with lemon slices on top.
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.
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Main protein; cooked over direct fire to brown the surface and stay tender.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, forming a gravy with the juices when served on the hot dish.
- Currant jelly
- Provides sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the rich, gamey meat.
- Crackers or wheat flour
- Coating that helps the surface brown and gives the steaks a light crust.
The step that matters
Turn the steaks in the gravy and serve hot. Once the jelly and liquid are poured over, the steaks should be turned and served promptly. Holding them too long lets the surface cool and the coating soften, and the sauce thins as it cools.
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):
- Lemonthe original
- Red currantfits about as well
- Grapefits about as well
- 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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