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To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

A venison shoulder is rolled with mutton fat, seasoned, and stewed in gravy and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Port wine and currant work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 356 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Let the meat hang until ready to dress.

  2. Remove the bone and beat the meat with a rolling pin.

  3. Lay slices of mutton fat that have soaked in port wine among the meat.

  4. Sprinkle pepper and all-spice over the meat in fine powder.

  5. Roll the meat up tightly and tie it.

Stew and serve

  1. Place it in a stew pan that just holds it.

  2. Add some mutton or beef gravy, ½ cup port wine, and additional pepper and all-spice.

  3. Simmer covered on low heat for 3 to 4 hours until tender.

  4. Remove the meat, strain the gravy over it, and serve with currant jelly sauce.

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. Port wine + curranttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together356 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

  4. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 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
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender through long, slow, covered simmering.
Mutton fat
Adds moisture and richness, basting the lean venison as it cooks.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the meat and the gravy.
Mutton or beef gravy
Provides liquid for gentle braising, keeping the meat moist and flavourful.
Currant jelly
Adds sweet-tart acidity that balances the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Simmer covered on low heat until tender. Lean venison toughens if cooked hard or fast. Gentle, covered simmering breaks down connective tissue slowly while the liquid keeps the meat moist, so keeping the heat low matters.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Red currantfits better
  2. Currantthe original
  3. Plumfits about as well
  4. Grapefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, port wine, 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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