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A Venison Pasty

A savory pastry filled with venison, butter, and stock, baked and served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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A Venison Pasty

Why it works: Vinegar and red wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 575 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

A 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.

Prepare the venison

  1. Bone the neck and breast of venison and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Cut the breast into 2 or 3 pieces, keeping the fat on the neck intact.

  3. Layer the breast and neck in a pie dish, with the best end of the neck on top.

Make the pasty

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

  2. Place the venison in the crust.

  3. Add butter and water to the crust.

  4. If the venison is not fatty enough, add mutton fat soaked in vinegar and red wine on top before closing the pasty.

  5. Close the pasty.

Bake and make the gravy

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

  2. Simmer the bones in 2 quarts of water with mace, onion, crust, and whole pepper until reduced by half.

  3. Strain the stock.

  4. Lift the lid of the pasty.

  5. Pour in the gravy.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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, whose fat keeps the pasty moist during long baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the crust and filling, giving a tender, flavourful result.
Mutton fat
Adds extra fat to lean venison, helping keep the meat moist and rich.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the fat added to the pasty.

The step that matters

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 2 hours. Venison is lean, so long baking must be steady to tenderize the meat without drying it out. Keeping the pasty closed while it bakes traps moisture and fat within the filling.

Swap the mace

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

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

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