Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Venison Pie or Pastry
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gravy
Cut the venison into pieces, combining fat and lean meat.
Place bones and trimmings in a stew pan with salt, pepper, and enough water or veal broth to cover.
Simmer until a good gravy forms, then strain it.
Assemble the pie
Roll out the pastry dough thickly and line a deep dish with it.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and mace, then place it in the dish.
Pour the prepared gravy and port wine over the meat.
Dot the top with bits of butter rolled in flour.
Cover with a thick lid of pastry.
Decorate the pastry with leaves and flowers using a tin cutter.
Bake and finish
Bake for 2 or more hours, depending on size.
Brush the top with beaten egg before it's done.
Return to the oven to brown slightly.
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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Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Venison + port winetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together239 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Venison
- Provides the main meat, with fat and lean pieces giving both flavor and tenderness during long cooking.
- Port wine
- Adds depth and a touch of sweetness to the gravy that surrounds the meat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and browns the pastry top as it melts and cooks.
- Flour
- Coats the butter pieces so they stay separate, helping the pastry crust stay flaky.
- Rich pastry dough
- Forms the sealed crust that holds in moisture and gravy during the long bake.
- Nutmeg and mace
- Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavor to the meat.
The step that matters
Simmer the gravy until it forms properly. Bones and trimmings must cook long enough to release gelatin and collagen so the strained gravy sets and enriches the pie. Under-simmered stock stays thin and waters down the filling.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, veal, nutmeg, port wine, butter, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, veal, nutmeg, port wine, butter, flour. 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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