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Roast Haunch of Venison

A roasted haunch of venison wrapped in buttered paper and flour, served with unflavored gravy and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 of 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. Add two or three sheets of stout paper on top and secure everything with twine.

Roast and serve

  1. Place the haunch over a clear, steady fire and baste the paper with butter or clarified dripping.

  2. Roast for 3 to 4 hours, depending on weight and quality; venison requires 30 minutes less.

  3. Twenty minutes before done, remove the paste and paper, baste the meat with butter, and lightly dredge with flour.

  4. Let it brown lightly and serve hot with unflavored gravy and currant 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
The main cut of meat, cooked slowly so it stays moist under its protective wrapping.
Butter
Adds fat for basting, keeping the surface moist and helping it brown.
Flour
Forms a protective paste over the meat and later dusts the surface to encourage browning.
Currant jelly
Adds sweetness and tartness that balance the rich, gamey meat.

The step that matters

Removing the paste and paper twenty minutes before done. The paste and paper shield the meat while it roasts slowly. Removing them near the end lets the surface dry and brown; removing them too early can leave the meat dry and pale, while leaving them on too long prevents browning.

“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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