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To Roast Venison

A venison saddle roasted with vinegar, pepper, salt, salt pork, bread crumbs, herbs, currant jelly, claret wine, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 it with vinegar, red pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Lard the saddle with strips of salt pork rolled in seasoned bread crumbs mixed with sweet marjoram and sweet basil.

  4. Rub the whole with currant jelly and pour over it the claret wine.

  5. Let it stand overnight.

Roast and finish

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

  2. Cover with soft paper and secure with strings.

  3. Place the covered venison in a dripping pan with some claret, butter, and water, and baste often.

  4. Half an hour before removing, take off the paste and paper.

  5. Baste the venison with butter.

  6. Dredge the venison 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. Pork + marjoramtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together883 recipes

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

  5. Pork + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of venison
Forms the main body of the roast, carrying the flavour and cooking as the central cut.
Salt pork
Lardons add fat that keeps the lean venison moist and adds savoury flavour during roasting.
Vinegar
Acidity tenderises the surface meat and helps balance the rich, gamey flavour of venison.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown as the roast cooks.
Claret wine
Acidity and flavour in the marinade and the pan liquid, adding aroma to the meat and drippings.
Butter
Fat for basting that adds richness, moisture and browning to the surface.

The step that matters

Removing the paste and paper half an hour before the end. The flour-and-water paste and paper shield the meat from direct heat and keep it moist. Removing them too early exposes the lean meat to drying, while leaving them on too long prevents the surface from browning.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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