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Venison, Shoulder of, Braised
Bone the shoulder, and lay it in a marinade composed of equal parts of vinegar and water and a bunch of savoury herbs. Let it remain for three or four days, then lay some slices of fat bacon and one minced onion in a pan; put in the meat, season well with pepper and salt; add two cloves, a slice of lemon, and two ounces of butter; bake, keeping the pan closely covered, in a moderate oven for two hours, or cook slowly in a closely-covered stewpan or braising-pan. Strain the liquor, add a wineglassful of cream, and serve very hot with red currant jelly.
A straightforward braise, but written for wild deer of uncertain age and for a larder without refrigeration. Two things need rethinking: where the meat sits during its three or four days, and how long a boned shoulder actually needs in the oven.
- The marinade must be refrigeratedA vinegar-and-water bath was the Victorian way of holding and taming strong game in a cool larder. Four days at modern room temperature is not acceptable; keep the meat submerged in a covered non-reactive container in the fridge, and turn it daily.
- Shorten the soak for farmed venisonToday's farmed or park venison is young, mild and already hung under controlled conditions. Twenty-four to forty-eight hours is plenty; four days in half-strength vinegar will leave the outer inch tasting pickled and grey.
- "Moderate oven"Conventionally reckoned at somewhere around 350F, though period equivalents vary. For a braise this size 325F is steadier and gives you less chance of the pan liquor boiling away under the lid.
- Two hours is a starting pointShoulder is the hardest-working muscle on the animal and full of connective tissue. A boned 3-4 lb shoulder often wants three hours or more at 325F; judge it by feel, not the clock, and stop when a skewer meets no resistance.
- "A wineglassful"In Cassell's period this is roughly 2 fluid ounces, a scant quarter cup. Strain the pan liquor, reduce it hard first, then stir the cream in off the heat so it does not split against the vinegar still carried in the meat.
- The bacon is structuralVenison shoulder has almost no intramuscular fat, and the fat bacon under and around the meat is what keeps it from drying. Use unsmoked streaky bacon or fresh pork fat; heavily smoked supermarket bacon will dominate the sauce.
- Dry the meat before it goes in the panMeat lifted straight from the marinade will steam rather than take any colour, and the residual vinegar carries into the sauce. Pat it thoroughly dry, and consider browning it in the butter before covering the pan.
- YieldA boned shoulder of this kind serves six to eight. Red currant jelly is not optional garnish here but the counterweight to the vinegar and the cloves.
The long vinegar marinade in this recipe belongs to an era when venison often arrived at the kitchen door as a gift from an estate, of unknown age and often well into its hanging. Acid soaking, sometimes called "pickling" game, both slowed spoilage and blunted the strong flavour that many Victorian household cooks treated as something to be corrected. Shoulder was the cheap end of the beast: haunch and saddle went to the roasting spit and to guests, while the shoulder was boned, larded with bacon and braised slowly to compensate for its leanness and its sinew. The red currant jelly served alongside follows the long English convention of pairing game with a sharp fruit preserve, a habit generally traced to the older medieval taste for sweet-sour sauces with meat.