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To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

A slow‑cooked venison shoulder wrapped in mutton fat, simmered with gravy and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Let the meat hang until ready to dress.

  2. Remove the bone from the shoulder.

  3. Beat the meat with a rolling pin.

  4. Lay slices of mutton fat that have soaked in port wine among the meat.

  5. Sprinkle pepper and allspice over the meat in fine powder.

  6. Roll the meat up tightly.

  7. Tie the rolled meat.

Stew

  1. Place it in a stew pan that just holds it.

  2. Add the gravy and port wine.

  3. Simmer covered on low heat for 3 to 4 hours until tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the tape.

  2. Place the meat on a dish.

  3. Strain the gravy over the meat.

  4. Serve with currant-jelly sauce.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

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

  4. Allspice + port winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 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 shoulder
Lean meat that becomes tender as its connective tissue slowly breaks down during long, moist cooking.
Mutton fat
Melts into the lean meat during cooking, adding moisture and richness.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the braising liquid and meat.
Mutton or beef gravy
Supplies moisture and savoury body to the stewing liquid and the final sauce.
Allspice
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour that penetrates the rolled meat.

The step that matters

Simmer covered on low heat until tender. Gentle, low heat lets the connective tissue in the shoulder break down slowly into gelatin, which keeps the meat moist and tender. Boiling or rushing the cooking tightens the muscle fibres and leaves the meat tough and dry.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, pepper, port wine):

  1. Clovefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, pepper, port wine. 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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