Why it works: Venison and mutton work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Venison, Hashed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gravy
Cut the meat from the bones into neat slices.
If there is enough gravy, place the meat in it.
If not, put the bones and trimmings in a stewpan with 2 cups of mutton gravy.
Stew gently for 1 hour.
Strain the gravy.
Thicken and finish
Melt butter in the stewpan.
Add flour, stirring until brown.
Add the strained gravy.
Bring to a boil.
Skim the gravy and strain again.
Let it cool slightly before adding the venison slices.
Place the stewpan by the fire.
Heat until just simmering; do not boil.
Serve with red-currant jelly.
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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Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour 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
- Provides the main meat, which is cut into slices and gently warmed in the gravy.
- Butter
- Melted to start the roux, adding richness and a rich mouthfeel to the gravy.
- Flour
- Cooked with the butter until brown, its starch thickens the gravy and adds toasted flavour.
- Mutton gravy
- Supplies the liquid base and savoury meaty flavour for the whole hash.
- Red-currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and a tart acidity that balances the rich, savoury gravy.
The step that matters
Heat until just simmering; do not boil.. Boiling toughens the meat's proteins and can break up the thickened gravy, making it cloudy and dry. Gentle heat keeps the slices tender and the sauce smooth.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, butter, flour):
- Currantthe original
- Red currantfits about as well
- Raisinfits less well
- Pumpkinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, butter, flour. 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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