Why it works: Venison and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 239 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Venison Pasty
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the meat
Rub the venison shoulder with sugar for 2-3 days, then wipe clean.
Soak the mutton fat in equal parts rapeseed oil, vinegar, and port wine for 24 hours.
Assemble the pastie
Cut the venison into pieces and layer with fat in a dish.
Season with salt and pepper, and add butter at the bottom.
Cover with a thick crust, leaving no crust under the meat.
Bake
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3-4 hours.
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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Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together598 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison shoulder
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow cooking.
- Mutton fat
- Adds moisture and richness, basting the meat as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface of the meat brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the base of the pastie.
The step that matters
Covering with a thick crust, with no crust under the meat. The crust seals in moisture and heat during the long bake. Leaving the base uncrusted lets the butter and juices sit directly in the dish, so the bottom is not dried or hardened by a pastry layer.
“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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