Why it works: Venison and mutton work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Hashed Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Make the gravy
If you have leftover gravy, warm it up; if not, simmer mutton gravy or bones and trimmings in water for 1 hour.
In a stew pan, melt butter over medium heat.
Add enough flour to absorb the butter and stir well.
Gradually add the prepared gravy and red currant jelly, bringing it to a boil.
Skim off any foam and strain the mixture through a sieve.
Finish the hash
Add the venison to the sauce and heat gently without boiling.
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.
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Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,781 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Venison + red curranttop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together81 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leftover venison
- Provides the main meat, which is gently reheated in the sauce.
- Butter
- Fat that carries the flour and gives the sauce a rich flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth sauce that coats the meat.
- Red currant jelly
- Adds sweetness and a tart fruit note that balances the rich gravy.
The step that matters
Heat the venison gently without boiling. Boiling toughens meat proteins and can make the venison dry and stringy, so it should only be warmed through in the sauce.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, butter, flour):
- Currantfits about as well
- Red currantthe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Pumpkinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, butter, flour. 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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