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Venison

A savory gravy made from venison or veal stock, butter, flour, onion, wine, cloves, and anchovy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. If you have venison gravy, use it; otherwise, use veal stock or good broth.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Add the chopped onion or shallot and cook until soft.

  4. Pour in the stock or gravy and add wine, cloves, and anchovy if using.

  5. Boil gently for about 15 minutes, then strain the mixture.

Serve

  1. Add the strained gravy to the hash before 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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Onion + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness and flavor to the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy when cooked with butter to form a roux.
Onion or shallot
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the base.
Anchovy
Adds deep savory depth without a obvious fishy taste.

The step that matters

Making the roux. Cooking the flour in melted butter until it is no longer raw coats the starch granules so the gravy thickens smoothly without lumps. Stirring constantly keeps it from scorching.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

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