Why it works: Carrot and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Hash Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gravy
Arrange the venison slices in a clean saucepan and pour the gravy over them.
Let stand for 10 minutes.
If no gravy is available, boil the bones of the venison with mutton cutlets, carrot, herbs, and water or broth until reduced by one third.
Strain the liquid, cool it, and skim off the fat.
Heat the gravy and thicken it with arrow-root or brown roux.
Mix in the sauce.
Cook and serve
Place the saucepan near the fire and slowly bring to a boil.
Serve immediately in a hot-water dish.
Serve on fried bread if desired.
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.
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Carrot + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,628 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Venison + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together116 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Venison + carrottop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together169 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 meat that is cooked gently in the gravy so it becomes tender and flavourful.
- Brown gravy
- Supplies the liquid, savour and body that coat the meat and form the sauce.
- Arrow-root
- Thickens the sauce by gelatinising in hot liquid, giving it a smooth, glossy body.
- Brown roux
- Thickens the sauce as a flour and fat mixture, adding body and a toasted, nutty flavour.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil slowly. Heating gently keeps the thin venison slices tender and prevents the thickened sauce from scorching or breaking, while starch needs heat to set properly.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, bread):
- Tomatofits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionfits better
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, bread. 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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