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Venison Pasty

A pastry encasing venison, butter, and water, baked and finished with a stock reduction.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Assemble

  1. Lay the venison in a dish with the breast and neck end first, placing the best end of the neck on top.

  2. Make a thick puff pastry crust for the sides, bottom, and top of the dish.

  3. Cover the dish with the crust, add the venison, butter, and water, then close the pasty.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 2 hours.

Stock and finishing

  1. Simmer the venison bones in 2 quarts of water with mace, onion, baked crust, and whole pepper over low heat until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the stock and pour it into the pasty after baking.

  3. If the venison is not fatty enough, soak mutton fat in rape vinegar and red wine for 24 hours, then place it on top of the venison before closing the pasty.

  4. Wash the venison in warm milk and water, dry it, rub with vinegar, and hang it to air dry for up to 2 weeks, ensuring no moisture remains.

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 + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  2. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mace + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Lean meat that provides the main body and flavor of the pasty.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the meat as it cooks in the crust.
Crust
Encloses the filling and bakes crisp, sealing in juices.
Onion
Adds savory aroma to the stock simmered with the bones.

The step that matters

Drying the venison before hanging. Moisture left on meat encourages bacterial growth and spoilage during air drying. Drying the surface thoroughly helps the meat hang safely over the long period the record describes.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, onion, pepper, vinegar, red wine, ginger):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, onion, pepper, vinegar, red wine, ginger. 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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