Why it works: Ginger and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Venison
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the venison
Keep the venison dry and wash it with milk and water. Dry it thoroughly with clean cloths.
Dust pounded ginger over the venison to prevent flies.
Spread butter on a sheet of white paper and cover the fat of the venison, sprinkling with coarse sea salt.
Cover the venison with a coarse paste on strong paper and tie it with fine string.
Roast and serve
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) for roasting.
Roast a haunch of buck for 3.5 to 3.75 hours, or a doe for 3.25 hours.
Baste the venison often while roasting.
Ten minutes before serving, remove the paste, move the meat closer to the fire, and baste with butter and flour to create a frothy appearance.
Make the gravy
Prepare gravy by cutting fat from 2-3 pounds of old mutton and browning it on a gridiron.
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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Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Forms the main roasted meat, whose lean muscle sets the dish's texture when cooked slowly.
- Butter
- Adds fat that bastes the meat, keeping its surface moist and encouraging browning.
- Flour
- Combined with butter during basting, it helps form a frothy, browned crust on the surface.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the fat layer and draws moisture from the surface, aiding flavor and crisping.
The step that matters
Ten minutes before serving, remove the paste and baste with butter and flour. Lean game meat dries out easily, and the butter and flour basting must be timed so the surface browns and froths without burning or drying the meat.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, butter, pepper, flour):
- Parsleyfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Sagefits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, butter, pepper, flour. 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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