Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓
Venison Steak
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the steak
Broil the venison steak rare.
Make the gravy
In a pan, melt the butter and add pepper, salt, and flour to make a gravy.
Stir in the mushroom ketchup and heat until hot.
Cut the steak into small pieces and add to the gravy.
Finish and serve
Cover tightly and set aside from the fire or in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Serve with toast and jelly.
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 + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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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 steak
- Provides the main meat, which stays tender when cooked rare and then cut small.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the gravy and carries the pepper and salt flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the melted butter and pan juices into a smooth gravy as its starch swells with heat.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds a savoury, earthy flavour to the gravy.
The step that matters
Melt the butter and cook the flour before adding liquid. Flour mixed into hot butter needs a moment of cooking to lose its raw taste and to thicken evenly, so the gravy becomes smooth instead of lumpy or pasty.
“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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