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Venison Pie, or Pasty

A venison pie made with a meat roll, stewed bones, and a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Venison Pie, or Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the venison

  1. Remove all bones from the venison breasts and flatten the meat.

  2. Season the venison with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Roll the seasoned venison tightly and tie with packthread.

Make the gravy

  1. Stew the bones and trimmings with carrots, onion, parsley, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorns, and allspice until nearly dry.

  2. Add half beef or mutton braise and half water, and simmer gently until the venison trimmings are cooked.

  3. Remove the venison roll.

  4. Cover the roll with paper.

  5. Stew the roll gently with heat from above and below.

  6. Once cooked, let it cool in the broth.

  7. Reduce the stewing liquid until strong.

Assemble and bake

  1. Make a soft paste with flour and butter, reserving some for the edges.

  2. Line the edge of a dish with the paste.

  3. Place the venison inside the dish.

  4. Add some of the gravy.

  5. Cover with remaining paste.

  6. Trim the edges.

  7. Make a hole in the top.

  8. Brush the top with egg.

  9. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 4 hours.

  10. Pour the reduced liquid into the pie.

  11. Serve when thoroughly cold.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison breasts
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, gentle stewing.
Flour
Forms the soft paste that wraps and encloses the meat during baking.
Butter
Adds fat to the pastry paste, giving it richness and a tender texture.
Egg
Brushed on the top to promote browning and a glossy finish.
Beef or mutton braise
Adds savory depth to the stewing liquid that becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Reducing the stewing liquid until strong. Concentrating the broth builds a rich, savory gravy; if it stays thin, the pie will be watery once the reduced liquid is poured in and the meat is cold.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, carrot, parsley, clove, garlic, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, carrot, parsley, clove, garlic, thyme. 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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