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To Roast Venison

A method for roasting a saddle of venison with vinegar, spices, and claret wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

To Roast Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly in several waters.

  2. Rub the saddle with vinegar, red pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Lard the saddle with strips of salt pork rolled in seasoned bread crumbs.

  4. Season the saddle with sweet marjoram, sweet basil, and pepper.

  5. Rub the saddle with currant jelly.

  6. Pour claret wine over the saddle.

  7. Let the saddle stand overnight.

Roast and baste

  1. The next morning, cover the saddle with a paste made of flour and water, half an inch thick.

  2. Cover the saddle with soft paper.

  3. Secure the paper with strings.

  4. Place the saddle in a dripping pan with some claret, butter, and water.

  5. Baste the saddle often.

  6. Half an hour before serving, remove the paste and paper.

  7. Baste the saddle with butter.

  8. Dredge the saddle with flour to brown.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of venison
Main cut of meat that is roasted and carries the whole dish.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity to the surface of the meat.
Claret
Acidic wine that tenderizes the meat and adds flavor to the pan juices.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown while basting.
Flour and water paste
Forms a protective crust that shields the meat from drying in the oven.

The step that matters

Basting the saddle often. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and carries fat and pan juices over the meat, so it does not dry out during a long roast.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, bread, marjoram, wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, vinegar, pepper, pork, bread, marjoram, wine. 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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