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Baked Saddle of Venison

A large venison saddle roasted with salt pork, carrots, onion, spices, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 carefully, ensuring no hairs remain.

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

Braise

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

  2. Place the saddle in the pan. Add the boiling stock and butter.

  3. Boil on the stove for about 15 minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) and bake, basting every 5 minutes. Cook until medium rare, so the blood runs when cut.

  2. Serve with jelly or wine sauce.

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 meat; cooking to medium rare keeps it tender and juicy.
Salt pork
Strips larded into the lean meat add fat, moisture and savoury flavour as they melt.
Stock
Liquid in the pan that braises the meat and keeps it moist while it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooking liquid, improving flavour and browning.

The step that matters

Cooking to medium rare. Venison is very lean, so overcooking dries it out and toughens the fibres. Pulling it from the oven at medium rare, while basting keeps the surface moist, keeps it juicy and tender.

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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