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To Make a Venison Pasty

A pastry filled with seasoned venison, butter, water, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and red wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 575 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

To Make a Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the venison

  1. Bone the neck and breast of venison and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Cut the breast into 2-3 pieces, keeping the fat on the neck intact.

  3. Layer the venison in a pie dish, placing the best end of the neck on top.

Assemble the pasty

  1. Prepare a thick puff pastry crust for the sides, bottom, and top of the pie.

  2. Add the butter and water to the venison, then close the pasty.

  3. If the venison is not fatty enough, add mutton fat soaked in rape vinegar and red wine on top before closing the pasty.

Bake and make the stock

  1. Bake in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for 2 hours.

  2. Meanwhile, make the stock by boiling the bones in 2 quarts of water with mace, onion, baked crust, and whole pepper until reduced by half.

  3. Strain the stock and pour it into the pasty after baking.

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. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Forms the main meat filling and gives the pasty its rich, savoury flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it melts during baking.
Puff pastry crust
Forms the enclosing case that holds in the filling and bakes crisp and brown.
Mutton fat
Adds fat and savour to the meat when the venison is lean.
Stock
Adds moisture and body to the filling after baking, enriching the pasty.

The step that matters

Baking at a very hot oven for 2 hours. Tough venison needs long, steady cooking to become tender, while the pastry must set and brown. Too little heat or time leaves the meat chewy and the crust pale.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, butter, onion, mutton, vinegar, red wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, butter, onion, mutton, vinegar, red wine. 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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