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Venison Stewed

A hearty stew of venison simmered slowly with port wine, gravy, and mutton fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 239 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Venison Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the venison into pieces, with or without bones.

  2. If using bones, boil them down for gravy.

  3. If not, use gravy from other meat.

Stew and serve

  1. In a pot, combine the venison, mutton fat, port wine, and gravy.

  2. Cover tightly and stew slowly for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Strain the gravy over the meat before serving.

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

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

  2. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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 of the stew, becoming tender with long slow cooking.
Mutton fat
Adds fat and moisture, helping lean venison stay juicy during stewing.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and acidity that deepen the flavour of the stewing liquid.
Gravy
Supplies the savoury liquid that the meat simmers in and becomes the sauce.

The step that matters

Stew slowly and covered for 3 to 4 hours. Low, slow, covered cooking breaks down the tough connective tissue in venison so it becomes tender. Rushing with high heat or uncovered cooking can toughen the meat and reduce the liquid too much.

“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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