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To Stew a Shoulder of Venison When Too Lean to Roast

A slow‑cooked venison shoulder wrapped in mutton fat and spices, finished with gravy, pepper, cayenne, allspice, and claret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison When Too Lean to Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the venison and flatten it.

  2. Lay thin slices of fat mutton over the meat.

  3. Sprinkle with mixed spices and roll it up tightly.

Stew and serve

  1. Stew slowly in a close stewpan with rich gravy.

  2. Add pepper, cayenne, allspice, and claret when nearly finished.

  3. Cook until the venison is tender, about three hours.

  4. Remove the bandages and serve, pouring strained gravy over it.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  4. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of venison
Forms the main body of the dish; slow stewing breaks down its connective tissue until tender.
Fat mutton
Its fat bastes the lean venison from outside during stewing, adding moisture and richness.
Rich beef or mutton gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that keeps the meat moist and forms the sauce served with it.
Claret or port
Adds acidity and wine flavour to the gravy, balancing the richness of the meat.

The step that matters

Stew slowly in a close stewpan. Low, covered, slow cooking breaks down connective tissue gradually. Fast boiling toughens the meat and dries out the lean venison, so the pan should be kept closed and the heat gentle.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, beef, pepper):

  1. Rosemaryfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, beef, 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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