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Roast Haunch Op Venison

Roast a haunch of venison wrapped in buttered paper, baked for several hours, then basted and served with gravy and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roast Haunch Op Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the haunch of venison in tepid water and dry it thoroughly with a clean cloth.

  2. Cover the fat side with a large sheet of thickly buttered paper.

  3. Spread a paste of flour and water about ¾ inch thick over the paper.

  4. Cover with 2-3 sheets of stout paper and secure with twine.

Roast

  1. Roast over a clear, steady fire for 3-4 hours, basting the paper with butter or clarified dripping.

  2. Remove the paste and paper 20 minutes before done, baste the meat with butter, and lightly dredge with flour.

  3. Let it brown lightly and serve hot with unflavored gravy and current jelly.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  3. Venison + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together667 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Haunch of venison
Is the main cut of meat that is roasted and served.
Butter
Basts the paper and meat, adding moisture and promoting gentle browning.
Flour
Forms the protective paste and a light dredge that helps the surface brown.
Current jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity to balance the rich, savory meat.

The step that matters

Removing the paste and paper 20 minutes before done. The paper and paste shield the meat while it cooks slowly. Removing them late lets the surface dry and brown, so timing matters: removing them too early leaves the meat pale, and too late leaves it without the browning the step is meant to give.

“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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