Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Cook the venison
Melt the butter in a chafing dish over medium heat.
Add the venison and cook until half done.
Stir in the currant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.
Pour in the cream, cover, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until the venison is done.
Serve
Serve on very hot plates with strips of toast.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Venison + curranttop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together443 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Sauce + creamtop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,786 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + venisontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together957 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Provides the main protein; lean meat that becomes firm and dry if overcooked.
- Cream
- Forms the rich, smooth sauce and adds body and moisture to the meat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavor as the venison begins to brown in the pan.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness that balances the savory, gamey flavor of the venison.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savory, tangy depth that rounds out the cream sauce.
The step that matters
Cover and cook the venison in the cream for 8 to 10 minutes. Venison is lean, so it toughens and dries when overcooked, and it keeps cooking in the hot sauce after you stop heat. Check for doneness at the early end of the time, and keep the sauce at a gentle simmer so the cream does not separate.
Flavor stand-ins for the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, venison, sauce, parsley, pepper, cream):
- Lemonbetter flavor fit
- Limebetter flavor fit
- Red currantbetter flavor fit
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, venison, sauce, parsley, pepper, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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