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Venison Gravy

A savory venison gravy made by boiling venison and other meats, then thickening with scorched flour and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and mutton work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Venison Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Boil the venison with a little mutton, beef, or any other meat for nearly all day.

  2. Let it rest overnight.

Finish the gravy

  1. In the morning, remove all fat.

  2. Thicken the gravy with scorched flour.

  3. Add spices, sugar, and wine to taste.

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. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

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

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Venison + winetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Flour + winetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Venison + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Gives the gravy its main meaty flavor and body during the long simmer.
Mutton, beef, or other meat
Adds extra meaty flavor and richness to the stock during the long boil.
Scorched flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, browned flavor.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich meat flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the savory and acidic notes.
Spices
Add aroma and warmth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Remove all fat in the morning. Fat from the long boil rises and cools into a solid layer on top of the stock. Removing it before thickening keeps the gravy from tasting greasy and heavy.

“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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