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To Boast Venison

A method of roasting venison wrapped in clarified fat and flour, served with gravy, red currant jelly, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Red currant and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

To Boast Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wipe the venison dry.

  2. Sprinkle the venison with coarse sea salt.

  3. Cover the venison with writing paper rubbed with clarified fat.

  4. Make a thick paste of flour and water.

  5. Cover the paper with the paste.

  6. Tie the paper and paste with packthread and white kitchen paper.

Roast

  1. Set the venison before a strong fire.

  2. Baste the venison continuously until nearly done.

  3. Remove the paper and paste.

  4. Draw the venison closer to the fire.

  5. Dredge the venison with flour.

  6. Continue basting until it is lightly browned.

  7. Roast a large haunch for 3 to 4 hours.

  8. Roast a small haunch for no more than 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve the venison with the knuckle, garnished with a fringe of white paper, and with gravy and red currant jelly, either cold or melted in port wine.

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. Red currant + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

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

  3. Venison + red curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together81 recipes

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

  4. Flour + red curranttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + port winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,167 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
The main meat; its large mass needs long, slow roasting to cook through.
Flour
Forms a paste that shields the meat from the fire and later dredging helps brown the surface.
Clarified fat
Coats the paper so the wrapping does not stick and the meat is kept moist.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich, gamey meat.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth when melted with the jelly as a sauce.

The step that matters

Baste the venison continuously until nearly done.. Constant basting keeps the surface moist over a long roast and carries fat across the meat, which helps it brown evenly and stay tender.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, port wine):

  1. Currantfits about as well
  2. Red currantthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, port 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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