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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 the venison

  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 venison frequently with a mixture of flour, butter, and red wine when it is half done.

Make the gravy

  1. To make the gravy, crack the shank bone of the venison and place it in a saucepan with the beef, onion, pepper, salt, and 2 quarts of water.

  2. Boil gently for 3 hours, then strain the mixture.

  3. 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 to the strained liquid.

  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

Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the basting mixture brown the surface of the venison.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps the basting mixture coat the meat.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the basting mixture and the gravy.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity tartness that balances the rich meat and gravy.
Beef
Adds savoury meaty flavour to the liquid used for the gravy.

The step that matters

Add the flour and stir well before boiling the gravy. Flour added to hot liquid can clump into lumps. Stirring it thoroughly while the gravy boils disperses the starch so it thickens evenly and smoothly.

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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