Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Stewed Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and simmer
Remove all fat and skin from the chops.
Place the chops in a stew pan with hot water and salt. Simmer until the meat is tender but not falling off the bones.
Make the thickening
Melt the butter in a frying pan. Stir in the flour. Heat slowly until it turns a delicate brown.
Blend enough gravy with the flour mixture to achieve a cream-like consistency.
Finish and serve
Stir it into the stew while boiling.
Add the port wine. Simmer for two minutes.
Serve hot with currant jelly.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + port winetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,167 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Loin chops
- Provide the lean meat that becomes tender during slow simmering.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy, and browning it in butter adds a nutty flavour.
- Butter
- Carries the flour as a roux and adds richness to the gravy.
- Port wine
- Adds a sweet, fruity depth to the finished gravy.
The step that matters
Heating the butter and flour until delicate brown. The flour must brown gently so it tastes nutty without scorching. Burnt flour turns bitter and dark, and it thickens less evenly than a properly cooked roux.
“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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