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Baked Saddle of Venison

A roasted venison saddle with salt pork, vegetables, and aromatics, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Saddle of Venison

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.

Prepare

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly, ensuring no hairs remain.

  2. Lard the saddle with the salt pork strips, placing two rows on each side.

Make the braising base

  1. In a large roasting pan, combine the sliced carrots, onion, and salt pork. Add the bay leaves, cloves, allspice, lemon slices, salt, and pepper.

  2. Place the saddle in the pan and pour in the boiling hot stock and butter.

  3. Bring to a boil on the stove for about 15 minutes.

Roast and serve

  1. Transfer the pan to a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) and bake.

  2. Baste the venison every 5 minutes until medium rare, when the blood runs when cut.

  3. For well-done venison, cook longer and serve with cream sauce or stir cream into the gravy.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison saddle
Forms the main roast; its lean meat is cooked to the desired doneness.
Salt pork
Lardoning strips add fat and moisture to the lean venison as it roasts.
Stock
Provides liquid for the pan, keeping the roast moist and building the gravy.
Carrots
Flavour base in the pan that sweetens the braising liquid and gravy.
Onion
Flavour base in the pan that adds savoury depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Basting to medium rare. Lean venison dries out and toughens quickly once overcooked, so regular basting with pan liquid keeps the surface moist while the centre reaches the target doneness.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, 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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