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Venison Pasty

A venison pasty prepared with seasoned venison shoulder, mutton fat, rape oil, vinegar, port wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 239 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cure and soak

  1. Rub the venison shoulder with sugar for 2-3 days.

  2. Afterward, wipe it clean of sugar and wine.

  3. Soak the mutton fat in equal parts of rape oil, vinegar, and port for 24 hours.

Cook

  1. Cut the venison into pieces.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3-4 hours until tender.

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

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

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

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

  3. Vinegar + port winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison shoulder
Lean muscle meat that becomes tender through long, slow cooking.
Mutton fat
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour into the lean meat.
Rape oil
Adds fat that helps keep the lean meat moist during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps soften the meat during soaking.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and aroma to the soaking mixture.

The step that matters

Baking low and slow. Lean venison turns dry and tough if cooked too hot or too fast. A low oven over several hours gives the connective tissue time to break down, so the meat becomes tender and stays moist.

“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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