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Haunch of Venison

A slow‑cooked, larded haunch of venison baked with bacon, butter, and a sour‑cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Allow the haunch of venison to air for 48 to 60 hours.

  2. Lard the haunch well with bacon that has been seasoned with salt and pepper.

  3. Rub the haunch with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Bake and finish

  1. Heat bacon grease and butter in a large covered baking pan.

  2. Bake the venison, basting frequently.

  3. Gradually add hot water or soup stock.

  4. 10 minutes before serving, add ¼ cup thick sour cream.

  5. If necessary, thicken the sauce with a small amount of corn starch.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Venison + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together90 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison haunch
Lean meat that becomes tender and juicy when slow-baked with fat and liquid.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the meat and adds savoury flavour as it renders during baking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the pan, aiding browning and a rounded flavour.
Sour cream
Adds tang and creaminess to the sauce, enriching its body and flavour.
Corn starch
Thickens the pan liquid into a smoother, glossier sauce when heated.

The step that matters

Gradually add hot water or soup stock. Adding liquid gradually and hot keeps the pan from cooling and the meat from stalling, and helps build a smooth, well-flavoured sauce from the drippings.

“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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