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Venison Soup

A hearty soup made with venison, ham, onion, celery, mace, butter, flour, and Port or Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Venison Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine venison, ham, onion, and black pepper in a pot.

  2. Add enough water to cover the meat and stew gently for 1 hour, keeping the pot covered.

  3. Skim the surface.

  4. Pour in 1 quart of boiling water.

  5. Add chopped celery and mace.

  6. Boil gently for 2.5 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix butter with flour.

  2. Add the butter‑flour mixture to the pot along with the Port or Madeira.

  3. Boil for an additional 15 minutes.

  4. Serve with the meat in the soup.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

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

  5. Venison + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 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

Venison
Provides the main meaty flavor and tender, shredded texture after long gentle stewing.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth as it stews with the meat.
Butter
Adds richness and body, and helps smooth the finished soup when mixed with flour.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it a fuller body.
Port or madeira
Adds sweetness and fortified wine aroma that rounds out the broth.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, vegetal aroma that complements the meaty broth.

The step that matters

Mixing the butter with the flour. Adding flour directly to hot liquid forms lumps, because starch clumps before it disperses. Blending it with fat first coats the starch granules so they dissolve smoothly and thicken the soup evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, ham, onion, pepper, meat, celery, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, ham, onion, pepper, meat, celery, butter. 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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