Skip to main content
Main

Venison Steaks

Venison steaks cooked and served with a butter‑flour gravy, optionally with jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Venison Steaks

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the steaks

  1. Broil or fry the venison steaks until cooked through.

Make the gravy

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and mix in the flour, seasoning with pepper and salt.

  2. If desired, add jelly to the gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy over the cooked steaks.

Finish and serve

  1. Cover the platter and place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 minutes.

  2. Serve on heated plates, adding a bit of jelly on each piece.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Venison + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

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

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 steaks
The main protein, cooked through to be tender and safe to eat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, carrying flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a gravy that clings to the steaks.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour into the melted butter. Cooking the flour in the fat for a moment lets it thicken evenly. Adding it without stirring can leave lumps, and the gravy stays thin or grainy.

“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.

More venison steaks recipes

Broiled 8with Currant Sauce 6Grilled 3 See all 15 →

You might also like

Roast VenisonRoast Venison20 recipesVenison PastyVenison Pasty7 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes