Why it works: Sage and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
To Boast a Haunch or Shoulder of Venison in the English Mode
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the venison in fresh water for 4 hours.
Baste the meat with a bouquet of sage dipped in olive oil.
For the stuffing, mix fine herbs with lemon juice and ½ pound of fresh butter.
Stuff the venison with the herb mixture before roasting.
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.
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Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,922 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Olive + sagetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,138 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the sage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, olive, lemon, butter):
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Sagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, olive, lemon, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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