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Baked Saddle of Venison

A saddle of venison larded with salt pork, braised with vegetables and spices, then baked until medium rare.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Saddle of Venison

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash the saddle of venison thoroughly, ensuring no hairs remain.

  2. Lard the saddle with strips of salt pork, placing two rows on each side.

Braise and roast

  1. In a large dripping pan, combine sliced carrots, onion, and salt pork. Add bay leaves, cloves, allspice, sliced lemon, salt, and pepper to the pan.

  2. Place the saddle in the pan and pour in the boiling hot stock and a small piece of butter.

  3. Boil on the stove for about 15 minutes.

  4. Transfer the pan to a hot oven (400°F/200°C) and bake, basting every 5 minutes.

  5. Cook until medium rare, so the blood runs when cut, or longer for well done.

Serve

  1. Serve with jelly or a wine sauce.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Saddle of venison
Is the main cut of meat, cooked to the doneness the cook chooses.
Salt pork
Strips larded through the lean meat add fat that bastes it and keeps it moist.
Stock
Boiling liquid in the pan that braises the meat and builds a flavourful base for the juices.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the pan liquid, helping flavour and browning.
Onion
Aromatic vegetable that flavours the pan liquid as the saddle cooks.

The step that matters

Cook to medium rare. Venison is very lean, so it dries out and toughens quickly once past medium rare. Checking doneness early and basting help keep the meat moist and tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pork, carrot, onion, clove, allspice, pepper. 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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