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As Venison

A preserved venison or mutton baked in a crust after marinating with sugar, port wine, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

As Venison

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.

Prepare

  1. Bone the meat.

  2. Beat it well with a rolling pin.

  3. Rub the meat with sugar.

  4. Pour port and vinegar over it.

  5. Let it marinate for five days and nights.

  6. Wash the meat thoroughly.

  7. Dry the meat thoroughly.

  8. Season the meat with pepper, Jamaica pepper, nutmeg, and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the meat in a dish.

  2. Spread butter over it.

  3. Cover the edges with a crust.

  4. Top with a thick crust.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

Make the gravy

  1. Set the bones in a pan with just enough water to cover them.

  2. Add port, pepper, and salt for 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.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

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

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or mutton
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and juicy during slow baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and deep aroma while helping flavour the meat during marinating.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that lightly softens the meat during marinating.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the meat moist in the crust.

The step that matters

Dry the meat thoroughly. A wet surface keeps the seasoning from adhering evenly and stops the meat from browning well. Drying it first helps the spices cling and gives better colour and flavour in the oven.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, port wine, vinegar, pepper, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, port wine, vinegar, pepper, butter. 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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