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Venison Pasty

Venison Pasty is a slow-baked dish of seasoned venison and mutton fat encased in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

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 venison and fat

  1. Rub the venison shoulder with sugar for 2-3 days.

  2. Wipe the shoulder clean.

  3. Soak the mutton fat in equal parts rape oil, vinegar, and port for 24 hours.

Assemble the pasty

  1. Cut the venison into pieces and layer with fat in a dish.

  2. Season the bottom of the dish with pepper, salt, and butter.

  3. Pack the meat tightly, ensuring it doesn't break apart.

  4. Boil venison bones with old mutton to make gravy.

  5. Add ½ pint of cold gravy to the dish.

  6. Cover the meat with butter and line the sides with a thick pastry crust, leaving the bottom crustless.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3-4 hours.

  2. After baking, pour the remaining hot gravy into the pasty using a funnel and shake to mix.

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

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 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 shoulder
Forms the main meat, which becomes tender during long slow cooking.
Mutton fat
Adds richness and moisture, basting the meat as it bakes.
Sugar
Rubbed into the meat to add light sweetness and aid browning.
Vinegar
Acidity in the soak that helps tenderise the meat and fat.
Port wine
Adds depth and a sweet, fruity note to the marinade.
Thick pastry crust
Encloses the meat and gravy, holding moisture during the long bake.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3-4 hours. Low, steady heat slowly breaks down the tough connective tissue in the venison shoulder, making the meat tender without drying it out. Rushing with higher heat toughens the meat and dries the juices.

“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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