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Venison Pie

A savory pie filled with boned venison, sliced mutton, and red wine, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Venison and mutton work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Venison Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the boned venison with salt and pepper, and place it in a pan.

  3. Layer the sliced mutton over the venison and pour the red wine on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the mixture with a coarse puff pastry and bake for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the venison, place it in a serving dish, and pour the gravy over it.

  3. Add the butter on top of the venison.

  4. Roll out puff pastry about ½ inch thick for the edge of the dish.

  5. Roll out another lid, thinner than the first, and cut it into decorative shapes.

  6. Place the decorative lid on top of the pie and bake for an additional 2 hours.

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

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

  2. Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together167 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Red wine + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,599 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 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
Provides the main meat, whose flavour and texture form the core of the pie.
Mutton
Adds rich, savoury meat flavour and body to the filling.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour that balances the rich meats.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and a glossy finish.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered crust that seals and covers the pie.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the pie. The pastry must seal the filling so steam stays in and the meat cooks gently over the long bake. A lid that is too thick or poorly sealed can leave the crust underbaked or the meat dry.

“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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