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Roast Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison served with brown gravy, currant jelly, and French beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and beans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,080 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the haunch

  1. Saw off the shank-bone.

  2. Remove the sinew.

  3. Pare away the dark dry skin from the skirt and the dried surface of the under part.

Roast

  1. Cover the haunch with a large sheet of well-greased paper.

  2. Place a covering of flour-and-water paste about ½ inch thick over the paper.

  3. Envelop the whole with two large sheets of greased paper tied securely with string.

  4. Roast the venison on a cradle-spit before the fire for about four hours, depending on size.

  5. Remove the paste.

  6. Remove the paper.

  7. Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the meat.

  8. Dredge the surface with flour.

  9. Baste with dissolved butter.

  10. Froth the butter using a red-hot salamander.

Serve

  1. Serve with brown gravy, currant jelly, and French beans.

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. Flour + beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  5. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 haunch
Lean meat that forms the main body of the dish and carries the roasting.
Flour
Forms the protective paste and dusted surface that helps the outside brown.
Butter
Dissolved for basting, adding fat and richness to the surface as it roasts.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity to balance the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Remove the paste and paper. Taking off the paste and paper late lets the surface dry and brown; leaving them on too long steams the meat and prevents the crisp, browned finish.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, butter, beans):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, butter, beans. 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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