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Venison Pasty

A savory pasty made with shoulder and breast of venison, sugar, port wine, shallots, onion, bay leaf, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Venison Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the venison

  1. Rub the shoulder of venison with sugar and let it sit for 2 to 3 days.

  2. Wipe the shoulder clean before use.

  3. Cut the venison into pieces.

Cook

  1. In a stewpan, combine the venison, a little port wine, shallots, onion, bay leaf, and parsley.

  2. Cook in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours until tender.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Port wine + shallottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

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

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shoulder of venison
Sugar-rubbed meat that becomes tender and flavourful during long, slow cooking.
Breast of venison
Adds lean meat to the filling, contributing to its bulk and texture.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the braising liquid.
Shallots
Add a mild, aromatic sweetness that builds the savoury base.
Onion
Adds savoury body and aroma as it softens during cooking.

The step that matters

Slow cooking until tender. Venison is lean and its connective tissue needs long, gentle heat to break down. Cooking too hot or too briefly leaves the meat tough and dry, so keep the oven low and cook until the meat is fully tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, sugar, port wine, shallot, parsley):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, sugar, port wine, shallot, parsley. 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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