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To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

A venison shoulder is wrapped in mutton fat, simmered with port wine and gravy, then served with currant‑jelly sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Let the meat hang until ready to dress it.

  2. Remove the bone and beat the meat with a rolling pin.

  3. Layer slices of mutton fat soaked in port wine among the meat.

  4. Sprinkle with pepper and allspice in fine powder.

  5. Roll the meat tightly and tie it.

Stew and serve

  1. Place it in a stew pan that just holds it.

  2. Add the gravy, port wine, and more pepper and allspice.

  3. Simmer covered on low heat for 3 to 4 hours until tender.

  4. Remove the tape, place the meat on a dish, and strain the gravy over it.

  5. Serve with currant-jelly sauce.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  4. Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Venison shoulder
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Mutton fat
Melts during stewing, adding moisture and richness to the lean venison.
Port wine
Adds moisture and a sweet, fruity flavour that complements the meat.
Beef or mutton gravy
Provides the cooking liquid that keeps the meat moist during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Simmer covered on low heat. Lean venison toughens if it cooks too fast or boils. Gentle, covered simmering over several hours breaks down connective tissue so the meat becomes tender while staying moist.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, port wine, pepper, beef):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, port wine, pepper, beef. 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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