Why it works: Red currant and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Roast Haunch of Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the venison
Hang the venison for several days in a cool place, keeping it dry by wiping with clean cloths and sprinkling with pepper or ginger.
When ready to cook, wash the venison in warm water and dry it well.
Rub the venison with butter or clarified dripping and cover it with a 1‑inch thick flour‑and‑water paste.
Roast
If roasting on a jack, tie the paste on.
Otherwise, place it in the oven.
Baste the venison frequently while cooking.
Twenty minutes before serving, remove the paste.
Dust the venison with flour.
Brown it.
Serve
Serve with a strong gravy and hot red currant jelly.
Alternatively, melt the jelly with a little port wine and serve.
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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Red currant + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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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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Pepper + red curranttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together267 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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 haunch
- Is the main meat, and its lean flesh is cooked through and browned by roasting.
- Butter or clarified dripping
- Adds fat that carries heat to the surface and promotes browning and a rich flavour.
- Flour
- Forms a protective paste crust that shields the meat and later helps the surface brown.
- Red currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey flavour of the meat.
The step that matters
Remove the paste twenty minutes before serving. The flour-and-water paste shields the meat early on, but leaving it on too long keeps the surface pale and soft. Removing it late and dusting with flour lets the exposed surface brown in the dry heat of the oven.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour, pepper, port wine):
- Red currantthe original
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonfits about as well
- Plumfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, pepper, port wine. 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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