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Leg of Venison

A roasted leg of venison marinated in vinegar, salt pork, and spices, finished with sour cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Leg of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the venison

  1. Wash the leg of venison and make an incision; stuff it with salt pork.

  2. Place the leg in a crock and pour 1 pint of vinegar over it.

  3. Let it marinate for 4 days in a cool place, turning it over daily.

  4. Remove the venison from the crock and place it in a dripping pan.

Season and roast

  1. Season the meat with coarse sea salt and pour half of the vinegar used for soaking over it.

  2. Add 6 bay leaves, 1 finely chopped onion, sliced lemon peel, 6 whole black peppercorns, and 3 cloves.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 3 hours, basting often with melted butter.

  4. In the last 30 minutes of baking, add ½ pint of sour cream and continue baking.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison leg
Forms the main meat that becomes tender and juicy during long, slow roasting.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade helps tenderise the meat's fibres before roasting.
Salt pork
Adds fat and salty flavour that keeps the lean venison moist from within.
Melted butter
Fat carried over the surface during basting promotes browning and keeps the crust moist.
Sour cream
Added late, its dairy fat and acidity enrich the pan juices and add a tangy sauce note.

The step that matters

Marinating for 4 days, turning daily. Acid from the vinegar slowly softens the lean muscle fibres. Turning the leg keeps the whole surface in contact with the marinade, so the meat tenderises evenly rather than only on the exposed side.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pork, vinegar, onion, clove, butter, cream):

  1. Applefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pork, vinegar, onion, clove, butter, cream. 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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