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Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison coated in a flour and water paste, served with strong gravy and cold currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the haunch dry with a cloth.

  2. Cover it with paper rubbed with butter to prevent fat from wasting.

  3. Make a paste of flour and water mixed with a little pollard and cover the haunch thickly.

  4. Tie three or four sheets of white kitchen paper around it.

Roast and finish

  1. Roast in a strong fire for about four to four and a half hours, basting well to prevent burning.

  2. When nearly done, cut the string, remove the paste, and baste with butter.

  3. Dredge lightly with flour and let it brown.

  4. Serve with strong gravy and plain cold currant jelly in separate boats.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes

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
Lean meat that becomes tender and juicy during long, slow roasting.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown when basted on.
Flour
Forms a protective paste and, dredged on at the end, helps the surface brown.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Basting during the long roast. Venison is very lean, so it dries out and can scorch over hours in a strong fire. Regular basting keeps the surface moist and helps prevent burning.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour):

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Currantthe original
  3. Red currantfits about as well
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, 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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