Why it works: Sherry and currant work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 393 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut a steak from the leg or a chop from the loin of venison.
Cook
In a chafing dish, melt the butter with salt and pepper over a spirit lamp.
Add the chop or steak and cook for a few minutes on one side.
Turn the meat over and add the sherry or port and currant jelly.
Simmer gently for 7 minutes for rare or 12 minutes for well done.
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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Sherry + curranttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together393 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Lean red meat that is the main substance of the dish, cooked quickly to keep it tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the meat brown in the pan.
- Sherry or port
- Adds acidity and sweetness that deglaze the pan and build a savoury sauce.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and body to the sauce, balancing the wine's acidity.
The step that matters
Simmer gently for the stated time. Venison is very lean, so overcooking toughens it and dries it out. Matching the simmer time to the wanted doneness, rare or well done, keeps the meat tender and juicy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, pepper, sherry):
- Red currantfits about as well
- Lemonfits about as well
- Grapefits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, pepper, sherry. 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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