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To Roast Venison

A venison saddle is seasoned, coated with a paste, and slow-roasted with claret wine and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly in several waters.

  2. Rub the saddle with vinegar, red pepper, and a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Lard the saddle with strips of salt pork rolled in seasoned bread crumbs.

  4. Season the saddle with sweet marjoram, sweet basil, and pepper.

  5. Rub the saddle with currant jelly.

  6. Pour 1 bottle of claret wine over the saddle.

  7. Let the saddle stand overnight.

Encase and roast

  1. Cover the saddle with a paste made of flour and water, half an inch thick.

  2. Cover the saddle with soft paper.

  3. Secure the saddle with strings.

  4. Place the saddle in a dripping pan with some claret, butter, and water.

  5. Baste the saddle often.

  6. Half an hour before removing, take off the paste and paper.

  7. Baste the saddle with butter.

  8. Dredge the saddle with flour to brown.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of venison
Is the meat that is roasted, so its texture and juiciness define the dish.
Flour
Forms the protective paste and, dredged on top, helps the surface brown.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, which carries flavour and promotes browning on the surface.
Claret wine
Adds acidity and flavour to the pan liquid that bastes the meat.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the wine and vinegar.
Strips of salt pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour into the lean venison as it roasts.

The step that matters

Half an hour before removing, take off the paste and paper.. Removing the protective paste and paper too early exposes the meat to direct heat and can dry it out, while leaving it on too long prevents the surface from browning. Timing this removal lets the surface brown in the final stretch of roasting.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, bread, marjoram, basil):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, bread, marjoram, basil. 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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