Skip to main content
Main

A Venison Pasty

A savory pastry filled with seasoned venison, butter, and water, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
A Venison Pasty

Why it works: Vinegar and red wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 575 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

A Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the venison

  1. Season the venison with pepper and salt to taste.

  2. Cut the breast into 2-3 pieces, keeping the neck intact.

  3. Layer the venison in a pie dish, with the neck on top.

Assemble and bake

  1. Make a thick puff pastry crust for the sides, bottom, and top.

  2. Add the venison, ½ pound of butter, and ¼ pint of water to the dish.

  3. Seal the pasty.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 2 hours.

Make the stock and add the fat

  1. Simmer the venison bones in 2 quarts of water with mace, onion, and a piece of crust until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the stock.

  3. Use the stock to adjust moisture if needed.

  4. Soak mutton fat in rape vinegar and red wine for 24 hours.

  5. Place the soaked mutton fat on top of the venison before sealing the pasty.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Forms the main filling, becoming tender as it cooks slowly in the pastry.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping keep the meat moist during baking.
Mutton fat
Adds fat that bastes the venison and contributes savoury richness as it melts.
Mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Seal the pasty well. A tight seal traps steam and juices inside during the long bake, so the venison cooks in its own moisture rather than drying out.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, butter, onion, mutton, vinegar, red wine):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, butter, onion, mutton, vinegar, red 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.

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesHaricot MuttonHaricot Mutton59 recipesMutton SoupMutton Soup56 recipesRoast VenisonRoast Venison20 recipes