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Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison coated in a sweet dripping and flour paste, served with a mutton and organ gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Haunch of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Hang and prepare

  1. Hang the venison in a dry, airy place for 10 days to 3 weeks, rubbing it with a clean cloth daily.

  2. Remove the shank and chine bones, strip off the skin, and trim rough pieces.

  3. Mix 3 pounds of sweet dripping with 4 pounds of flour and 1 quart of bran to form a stiff paste with hot water, then let the paste stand for 1 hour.

  4. Roll the paste out to ½ inch thick and cover the venison evenly with it.

Roast

  1. Roast the venison before a solid fire for 45 minutes, letting it roast gradually and basting frequently with dissolved dripping.

  2. Cook for 13 minutes per pound, including the paste.

  3. Half an hour before serving, split the paste and remove it.

  4. Dredge the haunch with baked flour and baste with butter until done.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Combine mutton, liver, kidney, and venison trimmings in a stewpan with shallot, carrot, salt, clove, bay leaf, peppercorns, and butter, frying until brown.

  2. Add rum or brandy, black onion, and water, then simmer for 4 hours.

  3. Serve the venison on a hot dish with the fat side up, pouring some gravy over it.

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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Shallot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Shallot + carrottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together803 recipes

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

  5. Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 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 haunch
Lean meat that becomes tender and juicy with slow roasting under a protective paste.
Flour
Forms the stiff paste crust that shields the meat and holds in moisture during roasting.
Sweet dripping
Fat that enriches the paste and carries heat, keeping the surface from drying out.
Bran
Adds bulk and texture to the paste so it stays firm while roasting.
Butter
Basting fat that promotes golden browning on the exposed meat surface.
Liver
Adds richness and depth to the gravy base.

The step that matters

Roasting gradually with frequent basting. Slow, even heat cooks the large joint through without drying the surface. Frequent basting with dripping keeps the meat moist and promotes even browning, while the paste crust protects it.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, flour, butter, mutton, liver, shallot, carrot):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, flour, butter, mutton, liver, shallot, carrot. 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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