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A Venison Pasty

A pasty filled with seasoned venison, butter, water, and a mace‑onion broth, encased in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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A Venison Pasty

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

A Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the venison

  1. Bone the neck and breast of venison and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Cut the breast into 2 or 3 pieces, keeping the fat on the neck.

  3. Layer the venison in a dish, placing the neck end first and the best end on top.

Build and bake the pasty

  1. Make a thick puff pastry crust for the sides, bottom, and top of the dish.

  2. Add the venison, ½ pound of butter, and ½ cup of water.

  3. If the venison is not fatty enough, add fat from a loin of mutton soaked in vinegar and red wine for 24 hours on top of the venison.

  4. Close the pasty.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 2 hours.

Make the broth

  1. Meanwhile, simmer the bones in 2 quarts of milk water with mace, onion, and baked crust until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the broth.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, and its fat keeps the filling moist during the long bake.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the meat stay tender and moist as it cooks.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
Milk water
Serves as the liquid for simmering the bones into a flavourful broth.

The step that matters

Close the pasty. The crust must seal fully around the filling so steam and juices stay inside, keeping the meat moist during the long bake.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, butter, milk, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, butter, milk, onion. 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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