Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Saddle or Haunch of Venison
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the venison in warm water and rub it with fresh butter or lard.
Cover the fat with double sheets of buttered paper tied with soaked packthread to prevent burning.
For better results, cover the first sheets of paper with a thick paste made from flour and water, then secure with additional paper and string.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roast
Put some butter in the dripping pan and baste the meat frequently.
If wrapped in paste, roast for at least 5 hours.
Half an hour before it's done, carefully remove the coverings, baste with fresh butter, and lightly dredge with flour.
Serve
Serve with fringed white paper around the bone and skimmed gravy, alongside currant jelly.
Warm the plates before serving.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,077 recipes
Butter and flour 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
- Lean meat that is the main body of the dish, cooked slowly to become tender.
- Butter or lard
- Fat that moistens the meat and helps it brown during roasting.
- Flour
- Forms a protective paste or light dusting that shields the surface and helps it brown.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey meat.
The step that matters
Basting and timing the paper coverings. Covering the fat with buttered paper and paste slows surface browning and stops the fat from burning during the long roast. Removing the coverings late and basting with butter lets the surface brown and crisp before serving.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits about as well
- Currantthe original
- Red currantfits about as well
- Lemonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour. 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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