Why it works: Venison and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 239 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
To Hash Venison
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the venison.
Warm it with its own gravy or some gravy without seasoning until heated through, not boiled.
If there is no fat left, cut slices of mutton fat.
Set the mutton fat on the fire with a little port wine and sugar, and simmer until dry.
Add the mutton fat to the hash and serve.
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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Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Mutton + port winetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together344 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Port wine + sugartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together805 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Port wine + white peppertop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together48 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, port wine, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovefits better
- Gingerfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, port wine, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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