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Venison, Haunch of

A venison haunch stew simmered with onion, herbs, stock, wine, and red currant jelly, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Venison, Haunch of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Place the venison and any gravy into a stewpan and cover with cold water.

  2. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Add the onion and herbs to the water while simmering.

Make the sauce

  1. In another stewpan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, then fry until brown.

  2. Add the strained stock to the flour mixture and stir until boiling.

  3. Put the meat into the boiling stock, then add the wine, jelly, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cover the stewpan and let it sit at the side of the stove for about 20 minutes without boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, garnished with croutons and red currant jelly on the side.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 becomes tender through long gentle simmering.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy when cooked in the melted butter.
Strained stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it savoury depth.
Red wine
Adds acidity and deepens the colour and flavour of the sauce.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity tang that balances the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Frying the flour until brown. Cooking flour in fat until browned removes raw starch taste and gives the sauce a nutty colour and depth. Stirring prevents scorching, and the roux must be fully cooked before the stock goes in to thicken smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour, red wine, red currant, pepper, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, red wine, red currant, pepper, bread. 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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