Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Venison Steaks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the venison
Cut the venison steak into pieces of your preferred size.
Beat the pieces well with a meat mallet.
Cook and serve
Chop the steak and fry it in lard until cooked through.
In a separate pan, thicken the gravy with sweet milk, a little flour, and butter.
Add pepper to taste and serve hot.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 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
- Venison steak
- Is the main protein, cooked through to become tender after beating.
- Lard
- Fries the meat, adding fat for browning and a rich flavour.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the base of the gravy, giving it a creamy body.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk gravy as it heats, giving it body.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the gravy.
The step that matters
Thickening the gravy. Flour needs to be heated in the liquid so its starch swells and thickens the gravy. Adding it cold or stopping too early leaves the sauce thin or floury-tasting.
“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.
More venison steaks recipes
You might also like
Roast Venison20 recipes
Venison Pasty7 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.