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Marinade for Venison

A savory liquid used to marinate venison, made with carrot, onion, herbs, parsley, butter, vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Marinade for Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Make the marinade

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the minced carrot, onions, mixed herbs, and parsley; fry for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the vinegar, water, salt, pepper, and mace; bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Strain and store

  1. Strain the marinade and store in bottles for later use.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Soften and add savory sweetness and body to the marinade base.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and body as it softens during frying and simmering.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that helps tenderize the meat and balances flavor.
Butter
Carries flavor from the aromatics during the initial frying.

The step that matters

Simmer after bringing to a boil. Reducing the heat to a gentle simmer for the full 30 minutes lets the vegetables and herbs release their flavor into the liquid without the vinegar evaporating too quickly or the vegetables breaking down unevenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, parsley, butter, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, parsley, butter, vinegar, 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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