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To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

A venison shoulder is seasoned, wrapped in mutton fat, stewed, and served with a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Stew a Shoulder of Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the venison

  1. Flatten the boned shoulder of venison on a table.

  2. Season it well with cayenne, coarse sea salt, pounded mace, and a small amount of allspice.

  3. Lay thin slices of mutton fat over the seasoned venison.

  4. Roll and bind the venison tightly.

Stew

  1. Place it in a vessel that is nearly the same size as the joint.

  2. Pour in enough good stock to nearly cover the venison.

  3. Stew it gently for 3 to 3.5 hours, turning it halfway through.

Serve

  1. Serve with a sauce made from part of the stewing gravy, thickened with rice flour and mixed with port wine, seasoning to taste.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

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

  5. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Venison shoulder
Is the main meat, becoming tender through long, gentle stewing.
Mutton fat
Basting fat that keeps the lean venison moist during the long stew.
Stock
Cooking liquid that gently braises the venison and forms the gravy.
Rice flour
Thickens the stewing gravy into a sauce for serving.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stewing gently for 3 to 3.5 hours. Long, low-heat cooking breaks down tough connective tissue in the shoulder, making the meat tender. Boiling instead would toughen the muscle fibres and dry the outside, so the liquid should only simmer.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, allspice, mutton, beef, rice, flour):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, allspice, mutton, beef, rice, 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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