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Venison, Potted

Venison, Potted is a slow‑cooked venison dish finished with clarified butter.

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, Potted

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately cool oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the venison

  1. Place the venison in a stewing jar with a tight-fitting lid.

  2. Add the port wine and ½ lb of butter.

  3. Season the venison with salt and pepper.

  4. Cover the jar with 2 or 3 layers of buttered paper.

  5. Press the lid down tightly.

  6. Cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

  7. Drain the venison.

Make the potted mash

  1. Chop the venison finely.

  2. Pound the chopped venison in a mortar until smooth.

  3. Gradually moisten the mash with gravy.

  4. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve.

  5. Season the mash to taste.

  6. Press the mash into small pots.

  7. Cover the top of each pot with clarified butter.

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. Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  4. Port wine + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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 potted mash, giving it its meaty flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the cooked meat tender and smooth.
Port wine
Adds acidity and sweetness that balance the rich meat and deepen its flavor.

The step that matters

Press the lid down tightly. A tight seal traps moisture and keeps the venison from drying out during the long, gentle oven cooking, so the meat stays tender enough to mash smooth.

“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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