Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Roast Haunch of Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Saw off the shank-bone and remove the sinew from the haunch.
Pare away the dark dry skin from the skirt and the dried surface of the under part.
Cover the haunch with a large sheet of well-greased paper.
Make a paste with flour and water, about ½ inch thick, and cover the paper with it.
Envelop the haunch with two large sheets of greased paper, securely tied with string.
Roast
Place the venison on a cradle-spit and roast it before the fire for about 4 hours.
Remove the paste and paper before taking it up from the fire.
Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt over the haunch.
Dredge the surface with flour and baste it with dissolved butter.
Froth the butter using a red-hot salamander.
Serve
Serve with brown gravy, currant jelly, and French beans.
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.
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Currant + port winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together356 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- The lean, dense meat that is the main element of the dish, cooked slowly before the fire.
- Flour
- Forms a protective paste crust that helps hold in moisture during the long roast.
- Butter
- Basting fat that moistens the surface and helps it brown and crisp when frothed.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balances the rich, strong flavour of the venison.
The step that matters
Wrapping the haunch in greased paper and paste. The paper and flour paste shield the lean meat from direct heat during the roughly four-hour roast, helping it stay moist. If the wrapping is loose or torn, the surface can dry out and scorch before the centre is cooked.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, butter, currant, port wine, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Red currantfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, butter, currant, port wine, cinnamon. 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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