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Venison-Pasty

A savory pasty filled with venison, gravy, and spices, topped with a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Venison-Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Make gravy from the bones and trimmings of the venison.

  3. Combine fat and lean pieces of venison in a dish.

  4. Season the meat with salt, pepper, pounded mace, and allspice.

  5. Pour in the gravy, claret or port, eschalot vinegar, and onions if using.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover the dish with a thick pie crust, decorating as desired.

  2. Bake for 1.5 hours, ensuring it does not overcook.

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

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison breast
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long slow bake.
Mutton fat
Adds moisture and richness, since venison is very lean.
Claret or port
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Eschalot vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that brightens the rich meat.
Thick pie crust
Seals the dish so the meat cooks gently in its own juices.

The step that matters

Bake for 1.5 hours without overcooking. Venison is very lean, so long heat can dry and toughen it. Gentle baking under a sealed crust, with fat and gravy present, keeps the meat moist while it becomes tender.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, pepper, mace, allspice, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, pepper, mace, allspice, vinegar. 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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