Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Venison, Roast
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cover the venison with a large sheet of buttered white paper.
Make a coarse paste of flour and water, and cover the thicker parts of the venison with it.
Secure the paper and paste with string.
Roast
Roast the venison for 3 to 5 hours, basting frequently.
About 20 minutes before it's done, remove the paper, string, and paste.
Dredge the venison lightly with flour and coarse sea salt, then baste with butter.
The venison should be a lively pale brown when done.
Serve
Serve on a dry dish with strong gravy and currant jelly sauce on the side.
Accompany with mashed potatoes.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 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).
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
- Venison
- Forms the main body of the roast, which is cooked slowly until tender and done.
- Flour
- In the paste, it forms a protective crust over the thicker parts, shielding them from direct heat.
- Butter
- Used for greasing the paper and basting, it adds moisture and helps the surface brown.
- Coarse sea salt
- Dredged over the surface near the end, it seasons the outside and adds texture to the crust.
The step that matters
Removing the paper, string, and paste about 20 minutes before done. Taking the cover off late lets the surface dry and brown, giving the lively pale brown colour the record asks for. Removing it too early leaves the meat pale and less seasoned, and leaving it on too long prevents browning.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, flour, potato):
- Raisinfits better
- Red currantfits better
- Lemonfits about as well
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, flour, potato. 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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