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Venison Pasty

A savory pastry filled with stewed venison, seasoned with mace, allspice, shallots, cayenne, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the skin from the venison and cut the meat off the bones into 1-inch pieces.

  2. Place the meat, bones, and skin into a stewpan and cover with veal or mutton broth.

  3. Add the mace, allspice, shallots, salt, cayenne, and port wine.

Stew and assemble

  1. Stew over low heat until the meat is half cooked.

  2. Remove the meat and let the gravy continue to simmer.

  3. Line a large dish with pastry, arrange the meat in it, and pour the gravy through a sieve over the meat.

  4. Add the lemon juice, cover with the top crust, and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together386 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 filling and gives the pie its rich, gamey flavor.
Veal or mutton broth
Provides the liquid that cooks the meat and forms the savory gravy.
Port wine
Adds depth and sweetness to the gravy as it simmers with the meat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy flavors of the meat and gravy.
Shallots
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stopping the stew at half cooked. The meat finishes cooking in the oven under the crust, so stewing it fully first would leave it overcooked and dry. Removing the meat while the gravy simmers on keeps the filling tender and juicy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, meat, veal, allspice, shallot, pepper, port wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, meat, veal, allspice, shallot, pepper, port wine. 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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