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Haunch of Venison Roasted
Wipe the meat carefully with a wet cloth and cover with a large sheet of buttered paper. Make a thick paste of flour and water; roll out three quarters of an inch thick; lay over the fat side of the haunch; cover with three or four sheets of thick white paper and tie securely with cord. Put in a dripping pan and roast, basting frequently to prevent the paper and string from burning. A haunch of twelve pounds will require three hours to roast; a larger one longer. Half an hour before it is done, remove from the oven; cut the strings; take off paste and paper; dredge with flour, salt and pepper; return to the oven and roast to a fine brown. Serve with brown sauce to which a tablespoon of currant jelly has been added.
A period roast that relies on a flour-and-water "huff paste" as insulation rather than any thermometer. The paste is the whole technique; everything else is timing.
- The hinge: the paste is armour, not foodThe flour-and-water crust is there to keep the thin fat cap from scorching and to slow drying on a very lean joint. Note that the recipe lays it over the fat side only; the paper, not the paste, wraps the whole haunch. It is discarded, so mix it stiff and plain — as a rough guide, something like 4 cups flour to 1 to 1 1/4 cups water.
- No oven temperature is givenFor a large joint under a paste, work at 325F, raising to 425F for the final uncovered half hour to brown. The book gives no temperature at all and assumes the cook can judge her own oven.
- Three hours is a hearth timing, not a modern oneThree hours is a generous timing -- Twelve pounds of bone-in haunch at 325F will reach medium-rare well before three hours. Venison is very lean and turns grey and dry once well past medium-rare, so cook to temperature at the thickest part and treat the clock as a rough guide.
- "Haunch" and its sizeA haunch is the whole hind leg, bone in. A 12 lb haunch is a red deer or a large farmed deer; a supermarket or farm-shop venison leg is more often 5 to 8 lb, which will need proportionally much less time.
- Buttered paper and cordUse unbleached parchment where the recipe says buttered paper, and cotton butcher's twine for the cord. Avoid printed or waxed paper, and do not substitute foil for the outer layers if you want the paste to dry and hold its shape.
- Basting under a crustThe basting is aimed at the paper and string, not the meat — that is exactly what the recipe says it is for. Keep a little fat or stock in the dripping pan and spoon it over so nothing chars through.
- Dredging at the endFlour, salt and pepper on damp meat under high heat gives the "fine brown" the recipe wants. Dredge lightly; a heavy coat sets into a pasty layer rather than a crust.
- Brown sauce with currant jellyThis is a plain roux-based brown sauce or reduced venison stock, sharpened with a tablespoon of red currant jelly. Redcurrant is the traditional partner for venison; a good pan gravy deglazed with stock and finished with the jelly does the same job.
- Yield and restingA 12 lb haunch serves 12 to 16 generously. Rest it a full 20 to 30 minutes before carving, in long slices parallel to the bone.
Encasing a joint in a stiff flour-and-water paste is one of the oldest roasting tricks in the English kitchen, used for centuries at the open hearth where a lean haunch turning on a spit had no protection from radiant heat. The currant jelly in the sauce is the survival of a much older taste for sweet-sharp accompaniments to game b kin to Cumberland sauce, and a reminder that fruit with dark meat was standard practice long before it was considered a flourish.