Name: Neck of Venison
Ingredients: 1 neck of venison; buttered paper; strong string; gravy made from trimmings

Neck of Venison

Ingredients

1 neck of venison
buttered paper
strong string
gravy made from trimmings

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Cut the neck of venison with the blade bone part of the shoulder remaining on it.
Remove the blade bone and saw off the breast.
Turn the flesh back from the rib bones and cut out the bones.
Remove the skin and insert a spit through the neck, securing it with another spit.

Wrap and roast

Cover the neck with buttered paper and paste, then bind it with strong string.
Roast for three hours at 400°F (200°C).

Serve

Serve hot with gravy made from the trimmings.

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of venison: The main cut; its connective tissue softens over long, slow roasting, making the meat tender.
Gravy made from trimmings: Adds moisture and savoury flavour to the lean meat served with it.

The step that matters

Roast for three hours at 400°F (200°C). The neck contains connective tissue that needs sustained heat over a long time to break down and become tender. Keeping the neck covered with buttered paper protects the surface from drying out and browning too fast during the long roast.

“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.