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 ↓
To Roast Venison
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Roast the haunch
Cover the fatty parts of the venison with paper and a paste made of flour and water to prevent burning.
Roast the haunch for about four hours at 400°F (200°C), basting it well.
Serve with currant jelly.
Make the steaks and gravy
For venison steaks, cut the steak into preferred sizes and beat well with a meat mallet.
Chop the steak and fry in lard until cooked through.
Thicken the gravy with sweet milk, a little flour, and butter, adding pepper to taste.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked as a roast and as chopped steak.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy and forms a protective paste over the fatty parts during roasting.
- Lard
- Fat for frying the chopped steak, adding richness and helping it brown.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid and body for the gravy, softening its texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth finish to the gravy.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and tartness that balance the rich, strong flavour of the meat.
The step that matters
Basting the haunch during the four-hour roast. A large roast held at 400°F for hours can dry out on the surface before the centre is cooked. Regular basting adds moisture and helps keep the outside from scorching.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, milk, butter, pepper):
- Lemonfits better
- Figfits better
- Grapefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, milk, butter, pepper. 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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