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Venison Chops
These may be grilled or broiled in the same way as mutton chops, and sent to table with melted red currant jelly in a hot tureen, or with tomato sauce. Bacon is a favourite accompaniment, served up on the same dish. They should be served very hot.
Cassell's assumes you already know how to grill a mutton chop, so the whole recipe is really about what goes alongside. The points below fill in what the entry takes for granted.
- What cut you are gettingVenison "chops" here means loin or rib chops; the book does not state a thickness. Farmed red or fallow deer is what you will find today, and loin chops from a supermarket or game dealer are often thin, around 3/4 inch, so they cook fast.
- "Grilled or broiled"In a Victorian kitchen both meant cooking over or under direct radiant heat on a gridiron. A ridged cast-iron pan over high heat or a very hot outdoor grill is the closest modern equivalent; a domestic broiler element works but browns less.
- The hinge: do not cook it throughVenison is far leaner than mutton and has almost no intramuscular fat to keep it moist. Take chops to about 125-130F internal for medium-rare and rest them five minutes. Cooked to the doneness a mutton chop tolerated, they turn dry and livery.
- TimingOn a properly hot surface, roughly 2-3 minutes a side for a 3/4-inch chop, 3-4 for a full inch. Judge by feel and temperature rather than the clock, since chops vary more than butcher's cuts of lamb.
- Brush with fatThe lack of fat means nothing renders to protect the surface. A film of clarified butter, beef dripping or a neutral oil before grilling prevents the exterior from scorching before the centre warms.
- Melted red currant jelly"Melted" means warmed until pourable, not reduced into a glaze. A few spoonfuls of jelly loosened over low heat with a splash of stock, port or water, served in a warmed jug rather than a "tureen" if you do not own one.
- Bacon on the same dishVictorian bacon was generally drier and saltier than most modern wet-cured rashers. Streaky bacon, cooked crisp and drained, suits the dish; the recipe gives no reason for the pairing, but the bacon does supply fat the venison lacks.
- Serving temperature and yieldThe insistence on "very hot" matters because venison fat sets quickly and unpleasantly as it cools; warm the plates. Allow one thick chop or two thin ones per person.
Venison in late Victorian Britain reached town households both from Scottish and English parks and through game dealers and markets, which is why Cassell's treats it as a familiar but occasional meat, directing the cook to proceed "in the same way as mutton chops" rather than giving a full method. The pairing with red currant jelly is old and by then automatic, the sweet-sharp preserve standing in for the more elaborate sweet-and-spiced sauces served with game in earlier centuries; the same logic put jelly beside hare and mutton. Bacon appears for what is likely a practical reason rather than a decorative one, since wild deer carries little fat and cooks presumably needed to supply it from outside the animal, a habit that survives today in barding and larding of game. The entry's brevity is characteristic of the dictionary format, which points the reader to mutton chops instead of repeating itself.