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Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison covered in flour paste and paper, served with gravy and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a paste of flour and water to cover the haunch.

  2. Wipe the haunch with a dry cloth.

  3. Butter a large sheet of paper and cover the venison with it.

  4. Roll out the paste to about ¾ inch thick and cover the fat side of the haunch.

  5. Cover with 3-4 sheets of strong white paper and tie securely with packthread.

Roast

  1. Roast in a strong, close fire, basting frequently to prevent burning.

  2. Roasting time: 4.5 hours for a 20‑25 lb haunch, 3‑3.5 hours for a 12‑18 lb haunch.

  3. A quarter hour before done, cut the string and carefully remove the paste.

  4. Baste with butter and lightly dredge with flour.

  5. When froth rises and it turns light brown, garnish the knuckle‑bone with cut writing paper.

Serve

  1. Serve with unseasoned gravy and currant jelly.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Venison + curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,077 recipes

Flour and butter 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 haunch
Provides the lean, rich meat that is the centre of the roast.
Flour paste
Forms a protective crust that shields the meat from drying and burning during long roasting.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, promoting moisture and golden browning on the surface.
Strong white paper
Shields the meat from direct fire, slowing surface browning during the long roast.
Flour for dredging
Helps form a light brown, crisp surface when dusted over the basted meat.

The step that matters

Removing the paste a quarter hour before done. Lifting off the paste at the right moment lets the surface brown and crisp. Removing it too early leaves the meat pale and dry, and too late can scorch it.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, butter):

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Currantthe original
  3. Red currantfits about as well
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, butter. 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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