Name: Venison, to Prepare for Pasty
Ingredients: Venison meat; Plain drawn-beef gravy; Coarse sea salt; Pepper; Pimento

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Venison, to Prepare for Pasty

Ingredients

Directions

Remove the bones from the venison and season the meat.
Beat the meat and place it in a stone jar in large pieces.
Pour plain drawn-beef gravy over the meat, ensuring it is not too strong.
Lay the bones on top of the meat.
Set the jar in a water bath (a saucepan of water) and simmer for three to four hours.
Leave the jar in a cool place overnight.
Remove the cake of fat from the top.
Arrange the meat in attractive pieces on a serving dish.
If needed, add more pepper, salt, or pimento to taste.
Serve with some of the gravy, keeping the remainder for serving.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Venison + meattop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together126 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Venison + beeftop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together292 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

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