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Venison, Neck of, to Roast
A neck of venison should not be separated from the shoulder till the buck is quite stiff, otherwise the appearance of both the joints will be spoilt. Shorten the rib bones, but do not cut through the fat; saw off the chine-bone, and remove the small bones which cover the fillet part of the neck. Roll over the ribs the piece of fat from which the bones were taken. Wrap the neck in oiled paper, then in a stiff paste of flour and water, and afterwards in greased paper again. Tie the coverings securely on with tape, and roast the neck according to the directions already given for roasting haunch of venison. When done enough, serve with the same accompaniments as for the haunch. A neck of venison should properly be roasted on a cradle spit. When this is not at hand, three skewers should be put through the joint, and the spit should be put between them and the bones. Although it is best to cover the neck with the paste, this is oftener than not omitted, and the meat is enveloped in buttered paper only. Time to roast a neck of venison, eleven minutes to the pound. Probable cost of venison, very uncertain.
This is spit-roasting instructions for a cut most butchers no longer break down the same way, wrapped in a flour-and-water armour that has no modern equivalent on the supermarket shelf. The technique transfers to an oven with a little translation.
- The hinge: the paste is insulation, not a crustThe stiff flour-and-water covering (a "huff paste") is there to shield very lean meat from the direct radiant heat of an open fire while it cooks in its own steam. It is cracked off and discarded before serving. In a closed oven the same job is done by a double layer of buttered parchment or foil, removed for the last fifteen minutes if you want colour.
- Ordering the cutAsk for a rack of venison, chine bone removed and the rib bones frenched short but the fat cap left intact. The instruction about not separating neck from shoulder until the carcass is stiff belongs to the game larder, not the kitchen; it matters only if you are butchering your own deer.
- "Oiled paper"Paper brushed with oil or clarified butter. Parchment is the direct replacement. Greaseproof or foil both work; kitchen string replaces the tape.
- The spitA cradle spit held the joint in a frame or cage rather than driving the spit through it. Failing that, roast on a rack over a tray at 425F for the first fifteen minutes, then 350F for the remainder, and baste with the pan drippings.
- Eleven minutes to the pound is a fire timingThat rate assumes a fierce open hearth and a joint under paste. Venison rack is best judged by internal temperature rather than clock: 130-135F at the thickest point, rested twenty minutes, gives a rosy centre. Past 145F the meat turns dry and livery, because there is almost no intramuscular fat to save it.
- Farmed venison is different meatMuch of the venison sold today is farmed red or fallow deer, generally younger and a little fatter than the wild park buck this book assumes. It needs less protection and less time. Genuinely wild venison may need barding with pork fat or bacon over the loin.
- The accompanimentsVenison of this period was normally sent up with a clear unthickened gravy and red currant jelly, sometimes with a sharp port and jelly sauce; the haunch entry this refers to will give the exact list. Serve on very hot plates: venison fat sets fast and unpleasantly as it cools.
- YieldA rack of six to eight ribs, roughly 3 to 4 lb bone-in, serves four to six.
Venison in Victorian Britain sat largely outside the ordinary meat trade, which may be why Cassell's declines to fix a price: much of it came from private parks and estates and moved as gifts rather than purchases, so a cook might be handed a haunch by a landowner rather than buy one. The book's fussiness about waiting until the carcass is stiff, about not spoiling the appearance of two joints at once, and about the cradle spit all point to a household with a game larder and a servant to tend the fire. The huff paste is an old trick in English roasting, generally traced to the medieval practice of encasing meat in a coarse flour dough that acted as a disposable cooking vessel; by the time this dictionary was compiled it was already being skipped in favour of buttered paper, and the entry says as much. The neck was a less prestigious cut than the haunch.