Why it works: Venison and butter work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 957 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Venison Steak
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Season the venison steak with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Heat a grill or skillet over high heat.
Cook the steak quickly on the hot grill until desired doneness.
If the meat is not fatty, make a gravy by combining wine, flour, and butter.
Serve
Serve the steak hot.
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.
-
Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together957 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Venison + peppertop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together955 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Venison steak
- Main protein; cooking it quickly over high heat browns the surface while keeping the inside tender.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and contributes flavor to the gravy.
The step that matters
Cooking the steak quickly over high heat. Venison is lean and can turn dry and tough if overcooked. A hot grill or skillet browns the surface quickly, so the steak can reach the desired doneness before the interior dries out.
“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.
More venison steak recipes
You might also like
Roast Venison20 recipes
Venison Pasty7 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.