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How to Cook a Leg of Venison

A roasted leg of venison wrapped in a dough coating, flavored with sherry, brandy, and marjoram.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

How to Cook a Leg of Venison

Oven, in the book's wordsA good hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub the leg of venison with a mixture of sherry and brandy.

  3. Sprinkle marjoram over the venison.

Wrap and roast

  1. Mix Graham flour with water to form a stiff dough.

  2. Roll out the dough to about 2 inches thick and wrap it around the leg of venison.

  3. Wrap the dough in greased paper to prevent burning.

  4. Roast the wrapped venison in the oven for 3 hours.

  5. Remove the dough before serving.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sherry + marjoramtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Sherry + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,643 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Brandy + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,181 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison leg
Is the main cut of meat that is roasted and served.
Graham flour
Forms a stiff dough that encloses the venison as a protective crust while it roasts.
Sherry
Adds sweetness and aroma to the meat during the rub.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the meat during the rub.

The step that matters

Wrap the dough in greased paper to prevent burning.. The flour dough shields the meat from direct heat over three hours, so the paper and dough must fully enclose the venison; a gap lets the exposed surface scorch while the interior is still cooking.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, sherry, brandy, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, sherry, brandy, 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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