Name: To Stew a Shoulder of Venison
Ingredients: 1 shoulder of venison; slices of mutton fat; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon allspice; ½ pint mutton or beef gravy; ½ pint port wine

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

Let the venison hang until ready to dress.
Remove the bone and beat the meat with a rolling pin.
Lay slices of mutton fat soaked in port wine among the meat.
Sprinkle pepper and allspice over the meat in fine powder.
Roll the meat tightly and tie it.

Stew and serve

Place it in a stewpan that just holds it.
Add the gravy and port wine.
Simmer covered on low heat for 3 to 4 hours until tender.
Remove the tape, place the meat on a dish, and strain the gravy over it.

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.

Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together239 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together279 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Allspice + port winetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together400 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
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: Is the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Mutton fat: Adds richness and moisture, basting the lean venison as it cooks.
Port wine: Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Gravy: Provides liquid for slow braising, keeping the meat moist and building the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer covered on low heat. Lean venison is tough until long, gentle simmering breaks down its connective tissue. Boiling hard or uncovered can toughen the meat and reduce the gravy too quickly.

Swap the allspice

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

Clovefits about as well
Marjoramfits about as well
Celeryfits about as well
Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, 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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To Stew a Shoulder of Venison