Skip to main content
Main

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

A venison shoulder stew braised with port wine, mutton fat, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and allspice 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 ↓

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Let the venison hang until ready to dress.

  2. Remove the bone from the meat.

  3. Use a rolling pin to flatten the meat.

  4. Layer soaked and stewed mutton fat on the meat.

  5. Sprinkle with pepper and allspice.

  6. Roll the meat tightly and tie it.

Stew and serve

  1. Place in a stewpan that fits snugly.

  2. Add mutton or beef gravy and port wine.

  3. Simmer covered for 3-4 hours until tender.

  4. Remove the tape and place the meat on a dish.

  5. Strain the gravy over the meat.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

  4. Port wine + allspicetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Venison shoulder
Long, slow simmering turns the tough connective tissue tender and moist.
Mutton fat
Layered over the meat, it adds richness and moisture as it melts during stewing.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the gravy as it reduces in the stewpan.
Gravy
Forms the cooking liquid, carrying savoury flavour and keeping the meat moist.

The step that matters

Simmer covered for 3-4 hours until tender. Venison shoulder is lean and full of connective tissue. Gentle, covered simmering over a long time breaks that tissue down into gelatin, so the meat turns tender. Boiling hard toughens the meat and dries out the liquid.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, port wine, pepper):

  1. Clovefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, port wine, 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipesRoast VenisonRoast Venison20 recipes