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Shoulder of Venison Larded

A shoulder of venison stuffed with forcemeat, larded, roasted, and served with currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and currant work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 443 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Shoulder of Venison Larded

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the shoulder of venison.

  2. Stuff the shoulder of venison with forcemeat.

  3. Lard the venison.

Roast

  1. Roast or bake the larded venison, protecting the lardoons with several layers of buttered paper.

  2. Baste the meat while cooking.

  3. Avoid basting the larded part to keep the lardoons firm.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt and cayenne pepper.

  5. Remove the buttered paper.

  6. Brown the lardoons.

  7. Remove the strings used to confine the stuffing.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with currant jelly or any suitable sauce.

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. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

  2. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Venison + peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together955 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Venison shoulder
Forms the main body of the dish, and its lean meat is what the larding and stuffing are added to.
Forcemeat
Fills the boned shoulder, adding moisture and a richer, tender texture to the meat.
Lardoons (in the method)
Pork fat strips threaded through the meat, adding moisture and richness as they melt during roasting.

The step that matters

Avoid basting the larded part. Basting the larded section softens the lardoons, which should stay firm. Keeping them dry preserves their shape and texture, while the lean meat still gets moisture from basting elsewhere.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Red currantfits better
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, pepper. 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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