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Blackberry Braised Red Cabbage with Venison

Red cabbage dotted with berries perfectly cuts through game meat - serve with buttery mashed potatoes

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Why it works: Cabbage and venison work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt the butter in a large heavy pan over medium heat. Add the sliced red onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes until softened.

  2. Add the sliced red cabbage, mixed spice, balsamic vinegar, soft brown sugar and redcurrant jelly. Stir well, cover and cook over low heat for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender.

  3. Stir in the blackberries and the crème de mure or crème de cassis if using (optional). Cook uncovered for 5 minutes until the berries soften and the sauce thickens slightly. Keep warm.

  4. Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat until very hot. Pat the venison steaks dry and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side until well browned.

  5. Reduce the heat to medium and cook a little longer until the thickest part of each steak reaches at least 145°F (63°C) on an instant-read thermometer. Rest the steaks for 3 minutes before slicing.

  6. Spoon the braised cabbage onto plates, top with the sliced venison and serve with the mashed potato alongside.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Cabbage + venisontop 23% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together22 recipes

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

  2. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + cabbagetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together275 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, cabbage, vinegar, sugar, venison):

  1. Mustardabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Cucumberabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, cabbage, vinegar, sugar, venison. 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).