Why it works: Flour and beans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,080 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
To Dress Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cover the venison with a paste made of lard.
Wrap the meat in buttered paper.
Place the paste on top of the paper.
Roast
Roast the venison on a spit or in a cradle spit.
A few minutes before it's done, remove the paste and paper.
Baste the meat with butter.
Season the meat with coarse sea salt and flour.
Finish roasting the venison.
Serve
Serve the venison hot with hot gravy.
Boil any dry pieces and the shank in a little brown stock for the gravy.
Serve currant jelly in a boat.
Serve French beans in a vegetable dish.
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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Flour + beanstop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,080 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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
- Is the main meat that is roasted until cooked through and served hot.
- Lard
- Forms a protective paste over the meat that keeps it moist during roasting.
- Butter
- Is basted over the meat to add richness and help it brown.
- Flour
- Is dusted on the meat, where it helps form a browned crust.
- Brown stock
- Forms the base of the gravy, adding savoury depth to the sauce.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey meat.
The step that matters
Remove the paste and paper a few minutes before the end. Removing the wrapping late lets the surface dry and brown while the interior finishes cooking. Removing it too early dries the meat, and leaving it on too long prevents browning.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour, beans):
- Avocadofits better
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, beans. 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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