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To Stew Venison

A venison stew made with mutton fat, port wine, and spices, simmered slowly until tender.

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 Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Let the venison hang until ready to dress.

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

  3. Mix in slices of mutton fat that have been soaked in port wine.

  4. Sprinkle pepper and allspice over the meat in fine powder.

  5. Roll the meat tightly and tie it.

Cook the stew

  1. Place it in a stewpan that fits snugly.

  2. Add mutton or beef gravy, port wine, and additional pepper and allspice.

  3. Simmer covered on low heat for 3 to 4 hours until tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the tape, place the meat on a dish, strain the gravy over it, and serve with currant jelly sauce.

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. Meat + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Venison + meattop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together126 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison meat
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender through long, slow simmering.
Mutton fat
Adds moisture and richness, helping the lean venison stay juicy during cooking.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth, and its flavor carries into the gravy.
Mutton or beef gravy
Provides the savory cooking liquid that keeps the meat moist and forms the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer covered on low heat. Low, gentle heat slowly breaks down the connective tissue in venison, making it tender. Boiling or high heat tightens the muscle fibers and leaves the meat tough and dry.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, meat, 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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