Why it works: Flour and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,081 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Venison Hashed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the least done part of the venison into slices.
Make the sauce
In a stewpan, melt a bit of fresh butter and mix in flour and chopped shallots over low heat for 10 minutes.
Add ½ pint of port wine to the mixture and stir well.
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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Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together380 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + port winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,499 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and shallot mixture into a sauce base.
- Fresh butter
- Carries the shallots and flour and adds richness to the sauce.
- Chopped shallots
- Add aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the sauce.
- Port wine
- Adds sweetness, acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
The step that matters
Cooking the flour in the butter and shallots. Cooking the flour over low heat for the full time lets its raw starch taste cook out and gives the sauce a smooth, properly thickened base. Rushing it leaves a floury taste and uneven thickness.
“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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