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 Roasted, a l'ANGLAISE
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the haunch
Saw off the shank bone and remove the sinew.
Pare away the dark dry skin from the skirt and the dried surface from the under part.
Wrap the haunch
Cover the haunch with a large sheet of buttered paper.
Place a covering of flour and water paste about ½ inch thick over the paper.
Envelope the whole with two large sheets of cartridge paper and fasten with string.
Place the venison on a spit for roasting.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Venison + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together667 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 cut of meat that is roasted and carries the whole dish.
- Butter
- Lines the paper so the wrapping does not stick to the meat.
- Flour
- Forms a paste that acts as a protective crust over the paper.
The step that matters
Wrapping the haunch in buttered paper and flour paste. The paper and paste shield the lean meat from direct heat and drying, keeping it moist during long roasting. Gaps in the wrapping let the surface dry and scorch, so the seal must be complete.
“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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