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Venison Marinade

A liquid mixture of carrot, onion, herbs, vinegar, water, salt, pepper, mace, and butter used to marinate venison.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Venison Marinade

Ingredients

Directions

Make the marinade

  1. In a stew-pan, combine the carrot, onions, mixed herbs, parsley, and butter or beef dripping.

  2. Fry for 5 minutes.

  3. Add the vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and mace.

  4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture and use or bottle as needed.

Marinate the venison

  1. Soak a piece of venison in the mixture for 3 to 4 days, turning it regularly.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison (in the method)
The meat being tenderised and flavoured by soaking in the marinade.
Vinegar
Its acidity helps break down meat fibres and adds a sharp, tangy flavour.
Onions
They contribute sweetness and savoury depth to the marinade as they cook down.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and body to the cooked-down flavour base.
Butter or clarified beef dripping
Fat used to fry the vegetables, carrying flavour into the marinade.

The step that matters

Soak the venison for 3 to 4 days, turning it regularly. Acid from the vinegar works slowly into the meat, so the soaking time and regular turning let the marinade reach all surfaces evenly. Too short a soak leaves the meat largely unchanged, while turning prevents unsoaked patches.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, parsley, butter, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, parsley, butter, vinegar, pepper. 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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