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Virginia Venison Patty

A baked venison patty seasoned with bacon, garlic, mace, cloves, allspice, parsley, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Virginia Venison Patty

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. Combine venison, bacon, garlic (or onions), mace, cloves, allspice, parsley, and pepper tied in a cloth in a kettle.

  2. Pour boiling water over the mixture and boil until the venison is tender.

Assemble the patty

  1. Make a rich paste and line the sides of a milk pan (not the bottom) with it.

  2. Place an inverted small teacup in the center of the pan before adding the meat to prevent the crust from falling.

  3. Place the cooked venison in the lined pan.

  4. Add currant jelly, butter, salt, and pepper to the cooking liquid.

  5. Pour the liquid over the venison.

  6. Dredge the top with flour.

  7. Cover the patty with crust.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Forms the main meat body, which becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity acidity that balances the rich meat and cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooking liquid, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Bacon
Contributes fat and savory flavor to the venison as it cooks.
Flour
Dredged over the top to help form a browned, set surface under the crust.

The step that matters

Place the inverted teacup before adding the meat. The teacup supports the crust over the pan's center so steam can escape and the crust does not sink into the filling as the patty bakes.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, clove, mace, allspice, parsley, pepper, butter):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, clove, mace, allspice, parsley, pepper, butter. 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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