Why it works: Venison and mutton work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Hash Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Make the hash
Arrange venison slices in a clean saucepan.
Pour the gravy over the venison and let it stand for at least 10 minutes.
Place the saucepan near the fire and slowly bring to just below boiling.
Serve
Serve the hash immediately in a hot-water dish.
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 + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + carrottop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,878 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sauce + carrottop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,509 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + muttontop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,087 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
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Venison + carrottop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together169 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
- Provides the main meat and flavour; thin slices cook gently and stay tender in the gravy.
- Strong thickened brown gravy
- Supplies moisture and savoury depth, and coats the meat as it heats.
- Venison bones
- Release gelatin and flavour into the water or broth when simmered, enriching the stock.
- Mutton cutlets
- Add fat and savoury meat flavour to the stock as they simmer with the bones.
The step that matters
Bringing the hash to just below boiling. Boiling the thin venison slices toughens their proteins and makes them dry and chewy, so heat should rise slowly and stay below a boil.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, sauce, mutton):
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Onionfits better
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, sauce, mutton. 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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