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Venison, Potted

Venison, potted in butter with port wine, is a preserved meat dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 239 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Venison, Potted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and cook

  1. Place the venison in a stewing jar with a tight-fitting lid.

  2. Add the port wine and ½ lb of butter, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. Cover the jar with 2 or 3 layers of buttered paper and press the lid down tightly.

  4. Cook in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 hours.

Pound and pot

  1. Drain the venison, chop finely, and pound in a mortar until smooth, adding gravy gradually.

  2. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve, season to taste, and press into small pots.

  3. Cover the tops with clarified butter.

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

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

  2. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  4. Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Venison
Forms the main body of the potted mixture, giving it its meaty texture once pounded smooth.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the cooked meat soft and helping it set smoothly.
Port wine
Adds depth of flavour and sweetness that complements the richness of the meat and butter.

The step that matters

Sealing the jar before cooking. Tightly covering the jar with buttered paper and the lid holds in moisture, so the venison braises gently in its own juices and fat instead of drying out. A low oven keeps the meat tender.

“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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