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A Neck of Venison Stewed

A stew of a neck of venison braised with bacon, onions, celery, parsley, mace, stock, and haricot roots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A Neck of Venison Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Braise

  1. Line the bottom of a small braising pan with sheets of fat bacon.

  2. Trim the neck of venison and place it on the bacon.

  3. Add a few onions, 3 heads of celery, a little parsley, a few blades of mace, and 4 cups of stock.

  4. Cover the venison with bacon.

  5. Cover it with white paper.

  6. Cover the braising pan tightly.

  7. Place it on a slow stove.

  8. Let it simmer for 2 hours, or until the bones pull out easily.

Finish the sauce

  1. Remove the venison from the pan.

  2. Strain and skim the braise.

  3. Reduce the braise to a glaze.

  4. Add haricot roots and coulis to the glaze.

Serve

  1. Place the venison on a dish.

  2. Cover it with the roots.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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 + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Parsley + macetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison neck
Collagen-rich connective tissue breaks down during slow simmering, making the meat tender and the braise rich.
Fat bacon
Melting fat bastes the venison and adds savoury flavour to the braise.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the braise, carrying flavour and keeping the meat moist as it simmers.
Celery
Aromatic vegetables release flavour into the braising liquid during the long simmer.
Onions
Aromatic vegetables release sweetness and savoury depth into the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Reducing the braise to a glaze. Reduction concentrates the flavour of the strained liquid as water evaporates. Reducing too far or too fast can scorch the sugars and make the glaze bitter or sticky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, onion, celery, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, onion, celery, parsley. 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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