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To Make a Venison Pasty

A savory pastry filled with seasoned venison, butter, water, and optional gravy, baked until crust is golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and beef 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 ↓

To Make a Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Bone the venison and cut it into slices.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, placing the fat on top.

Assemble the pasty

  1. Make puff pastry and line a dish with it, covering with a thick crust.

  2. If needed, use mutton fat soaked in vinegar and wine on top of the venison before sealing.

  3. Add the butter and water to the pie, sealing the edges well.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for two hours or longer if large.

  2. Make gravy from the bones and beef, adding red wine.

  3. After baking, pour the hot gravy into the pasty.

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 + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  3. Red wine + vinegartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Beef + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison
Forms the main meat filling, becoming tender and rich as it cooks slowly under pastry.
Puff pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling, softening the meat as it melts.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the gravy made from the bones and beef.
Beef
Adds savoury meaty flavour to the gravy.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges well. A tight seal keeps the juices and butter inside during the long bake. A gap lets liquid escape, so the filling can dry out and the pastry can leak or collapse.

“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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