Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Veniſon Paſty
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the meat
Bone the neck and breast of venison.
Season well with salt and pepper.
Place the venison in a deep pan.
Layer the sliced mutton on top of the venison.
Pour the red wine over the meat.
Bake and serve
Cover the meat with coarse pastry.
Bake for 2 hours at 400°F (200°C).
Transfer the venison to a dish.
Pour the gravy over it.
Top with butter.
Roll out puff pastry to ½ inch thick for the edge of the dish.
Roll out another lid slightly thicker than the edge.
Place the lid on top.
Optionally, cut shapes from the remaining pastry and decorate the lid.
Store in the pot for up to 10 days, keeping the crust on to prevent air exposure.
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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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together279 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Venison + red winetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together167 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison
- Forms the main meat filling, providing the savory, rich flavor of the pasty.
- Mutton
- Adds additional meaty richness and flavor layered over the venison.
- Red wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the meat and helps build the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, moistening the filling and contributing flavor.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, golden crust that encloses and protects the filling.
The step that matters
Bake and serve. Baking for two hours at 400°F lets the tough venison and mutton become tender while the pastry sets and browns. Pastry can scorch or stay raw if the oven or timing is off.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, mutton, red wine, butter, egg, nutmeg):
- Lemonthe original
- Red currantfits about as well
- Plumfits less well
- Grapefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, mutton, red wine, butter, egg, nutmeg. 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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