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To Stew Cold Venison

A stew of thinly sliced cold venison simmered in a gravy of broth, herbs, butter, flour, catsup, claret, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mutton and venison work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 279 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Stew Cold Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Make a gravy from the meat remnants, mutton broth, and sweet herbs.

  2. Skim the gravy, then add browned butter thickened with flour, catsup, mixed spices, claret, and currant jelly if desired.

  3. Boil the mixture until smooth, stirring well.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the thinly sliced venison and heat thoroughly.

  2. Remove the herbs and squeeze lemon juice into the dish.

  3. Garnish with lemon slices and fried sippets or cut pickles.

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. Mutton + venisontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Currant + venisontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together443 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Meat + venisontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together126 recipes

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

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

Meat remnants from bones
Provides the main meaty flavour that the gravy is built on.
Flour
Thickens the browned butter so the gravy becomes smooth and coats the meat.
Browned butter
Adds a nutty, rich flavour and fat to the gravy.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour that balances the richness of the gravy.
Catsup
Adds sweetness, acidity and savoury depth to the sauce.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a fruity tang, and helps the sauce set and gloss.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until smooth, stirring well.. Flour needs to be fully heated and dispersed in liquid to thicken properly. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a floury or burnt taste.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, mutton, butter, flour, venison, lemon):

  1. Red currantfits about as well
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, mutton, butter, flour, venison, lemon. 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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