Name: To Make a Venison Pasty
Ingredients: 1 neck or breast of venison; pepper; coarse sea salt; ¼ pound fresh butter; ½ cup water; gravy made from bones and a little beef; 1 glass red wine; rape vinegar

Why it works: Pepper and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Make a Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

Bone the venison and cut it into slices.
Season the venison with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Place the fat on top of the seasoned venison.

Assemble the pasty

Make a good puff pastry.
Line a dish with the pastry.
Add the venison, butter, and water to the pastry.
Seal the edges of the pastry.

Bake and serve

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 2 hours.
Prepare gravy from the bones and beef.
Add red wine to the gravy.
Once baked, pour the hot gravy into 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.

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.

Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together575 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Beef + red winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,017 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together167 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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: Forms the main meat filling and provides the dish's savory, rich flavor.
Fresh butter: Adds richness and moisture to the filling as it bakes.
Puff pastry (in the method): Forms a flaky, layered crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
Red wine: Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the gravy.

“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.