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To Stew a Shmdder of Venison

A venison stew cooked with mutton fat, port wine, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Stew a Shmdder of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Let the venison hang until ready to dress.

  2. Remove the bone and beat the meat with a rolling pin.

  3. Layer slices of mutton fat among the meat.

  4. Sprinkle with pepper and allspice.

  5. Roll the meat tightly and tie it.

Stew

  1. Place in a stew pan that just holds it.

  2. Add the gravy and port wine.

  3. Cover and simmer until cooked.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together239 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Port wine + allspicetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together400 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 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
Is the main meat, whose firm texture becomes tender during slow simmering.
Mutton fat
Adds richness and moisture as it melts into the meat during cooking.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce as it reduces.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the stew, carrying flavour and keeping the meat moist.

The step that matters

Cover and simmer until cooked. Gentle, covered simmering lets tough connective tissue in the venison break down slowly. Boiling hard toughens the muscle fibres and dries the meat, so keep the liquid at a quiet simmer.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, mutton, port wine, pepper):

  1. Clovefits about as well
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, mutton, port wine, pepper. 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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