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Baked Haunch of Venison

A slow‑baked venison haunch finished with a sauce of butter, currant jelly, port wine, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Haunch 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.

  1. Trim the haunch into a good shape.

  2. Wipe the haunch with a wet cloth, then a dry one.

  3. Brush the haunch with melted butter.

  4. Place the haunch in a baking pan with hot water and additional butter.

  5. Bake the haunch in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  6. Baste the haunch continually for at least five hours if large.

  7. Remove the haunch to a hot platter.

  8. Place the baking pan on the stove.

  9. Add hot water, cayenne, salt, currant jelly, port wine, and nutmeg to the pan.

  10. Thicken the sauce with browned flour, then serve.

  11. Cover the haunch with a paste of flour and water while baking.

  12. Remove the paste half an hour before done to allow browning.

  13. Baste the haunch with hot water until the crust is removed.

  14. Add wine and butter.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Haunch of venison
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender and juicy with long, slow roasting.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during roasting.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body to the sauce, and gives the glaze a glossy finish.
Port wine or sherry
Adds depth and a slight acidity that balances the sweet jelly.
Browned flour
Thickens the sauce and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.

The step that matters

Removing the flour paste half an hour before done. The paste shields the meat while it cooks, but it must come off near the end so the surface can brown. Leaving it on too long gives a pale, soft crust, and removing it too early can dry the exposed meat.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Red currantfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, pepper, port wine, nutmeg, flour. 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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