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To Roast Venison

A roasted venison served with a sauce of currant jelly, port wine, milk or cream, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Red currant and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

To Roast Venison

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Roast

  1. Baste the venison with milk or cream, ensuring it absorbs completely.

  2. Once the milk or cream is absorbed, add the dripping and baste frequently.

  3. When cooked, transfer the venison to a hot dish and pour away the fat, leaving sediment in the pan.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add stock, pepper, salt, currant jelly, and port wine to the pan.

  2. Stir over heat until boiling, then strain the sauce over the venison.

  3. Serve very hot with additional currant jelly.

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. Red currant + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

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

  3. Red currant + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Port wine + milktop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Venison + red curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together81 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Is the main cut being roasted, so its cooking and basting determine the texture of the meat.
Milk or cream
Basting it first softens the surface and helps the meat stay moist during roasting.
Fat or dripping
Conducts heat around the meat and carries flavour, promoting even browning as it is basted.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich meat and thicken the sauce as it melts.
Port wine
Adds depth and a touch of sweetness to the pan sauce once it is reduced by boiling.

The step that matters

Basting the venison with milk or cream before adding the fat. Letting the milk or cream fully absorb before adding the dripping helps the meat keep moisture and form an even surface. Adding fat too early can seal the surface unevenly and trap liquid in the pan.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Red currantthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Grapefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, port wine, milk, pepper. 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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