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To Roast Venison

A roasted saddle of venison seasoned with vinegar, pepper, salt, and herbs, coated in currant jelly and claret wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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

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

  2. Rub it over with vinegar, red pepper, and coarse sea salt.

  3. Lard the venison with salt pork and bread crumbs.

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

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

  6. Let it stand overnight.

Roast

  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 well with strings.

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

  4. Half an hour before serving, remove the paste and paper, baste with butter, and dredge 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
The main lean cut, protected by the flour paste so it stays moist while roasting.
Salt pork
Fat that melts into the lean meat, adding moisture and savory flavor.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and helps the rubbed surface brown and glaze.
Claret wine
Acidic liquid that flavors the meat and moistens the pan drippings for basting.
Butter
Fat for basting that adds richness and helps the surface brown.
Vinegar
Acid in the early rub that helps tenderize the surface during the overnight rest.

The step that matters

Removing the paste and paper before serving. Taking off the paste and paper near the end lets the surface brown. Basting with butter and dredging with flour helps form a browned crust. Leaving the covering on too long keeps the outside pale and soft.

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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