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Baked Saddle of Venison

A roasted venison saddle with salt pork, carrots, onion, spices, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Saddle of Venison

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly, ensuring no hairs remain.

  2. Lard the saddle with strips of salt pork, placing two rows on each side.

  3. In a large roasting pan, combine sliced carrots, onion, and salt pork.

  4. Add bay leaves, cloves, allspice, lemon slices, salt, and pepper to the pan.

Cook

  1. Place the saddle in the pan and pour in the boiling hot stock and butter.

  2. Boil on the stove for about 15 minutes.

  3. Transfer the pan to a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) and bake, basting every 5 minutes, until medium rare.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Venison saddle
The main lean meat, which is cooked gently to stay tender and juicy.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the lean venison as it renders.
Stock
Provides liquid in the pan that keeps the meat moist and forms the basting juices.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the surface brown and taste rounder.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma into the pan juices as it cooks.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body to the pan juices.

The step that matters

Basting and baking to medium rare. Venison is very lean, so it dries out quickly once it passes medium rare. Regular basting with the hot pan juices keeps the surface moist and helps the meat cook evenly, so checking doneness early matters.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, pepper. 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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