Why it works: Venison and currant work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 443 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Venison Steak
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare and cook
Trim the venison steaks as you would beefsteak.
Place the steaks on a buttered grill and broil over a clear fire, turning often until well done.
Finish and serve
Remove the steaks to a hot platter and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and bits of butter.
Set the platter in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a moment, then serve.
Optionally, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of melted currant jelly on the steaks.
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.
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Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Venison + peppertop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together955 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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; cooking to well done firms the meat and sets its texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the surface as it melts over the hot steaks.
The step that matters
Broiling until well done. Turning often over a clear fire helps cook the lean venison through without scorching the outside. Lean meat dries out quickly when overcooked, so the timing matters.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, pepper):
- Lemonfits better
- Red currantfits better
- Grapefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, 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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