Name: Haunch of Venison
Ingredients: 1 haunch of venison; pepper; coarse sea salt; juice of 1 Seville orange or lemon

Why it works: Pepper and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,402 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

1 haunch of venison
pepper
coarse sea salt
juice of 1 Seville orange or lemon

Directions

Cut down to the bone in the designated line to let out the gravy.
Turn the broad end of the haunch toward you.
Insert the knife at the specified point and cut as deep as possible to the end of the haunch.
Serve in thin slices, ensuring each person receives some fat.
Proportion the fat and gravy according to the number of guests.

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 + orangetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,402 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Venison + peppertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together955 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Venison + orangetop 38% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together25 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).