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Boast Venison

A roasted leg of venison served with a gravy made from its drippings, beef, onion, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Boast Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the dry skin from the leg of venison using your fingers.

Roast

  1. Roast the venison for 1 hour if served on blazers, or 2 hours if on hot plates, turning the spit often.

  2. Baste the meat frequently with a mixture of flour, butter, and red wine when it is half done.

Make the gravy

  1. For the gravy, crack the shank bone of the venison and place it in a saucepan with the beef, onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add 2 quarts of water and boil gently for 3 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture and add the drippings from the venison, ¼ pound of butter, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teacup of red wine, and 1 teacup of currant jelly.

  4. Stir well and let it boil for about 5 minutes.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Red wine + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Venison leg
Forms the main roast; its lean meat is cooked through over the spit.
Flour
Thickens the basting mixture and the gravy so they cling to the meat and coat it.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the basting mixture brown the surface.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the basting mixture and the gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the gravy, balancing its savoury flavour.
Beef
Adds meaty flavour to the gravy stock as it simmers with the shank bone.

The step that matters

Basting the meat halfway through roasting. Basting at the halfway point adds a flour, fat and wine coating that helps the surface brown and stay moist, so the outside does not dry out before the centre is done.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, butter, red wine, beef, onion, 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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