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Roast Leg of Venison, Currant Jelly
Procure a five-pound piece from a tender leg of venison. Divide the meat into two equal pieces (keep one half for Monday's luncheon). Season the other half with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, well rubbed over. Place it in a roasting pan; spread two tablespoons hot leaf lard over it, set in the hot oven to roast for forty minutes, turning it over once in a while, and frequently basting it with its own gravy. Remove, dress on a hot dish. Skim off the fat from the gravy; strain the gravy over the venison. Decorate the dish with watercress and serve with three tablespoons currant jelly on a saucer separately.
A plain roast that depends almost entirely on not overcooking it. Venison leg is lean enough that the forty minutes given here only works if the oven is genuinely hot and the meat comes out at medium-rare.
- The hinge: internal temperatureRoast to 125-130F at the centre for rare, 135F for medium-rare, then rest ten minutes. Leg venison carries almost no intramuscular fat, and past about 140F it turns dry and livery no matter how much you baste.
- "Hot oven"Usually taken to mean somewhere in the region of 425-450F, though period oven descriptions were not standardised. Use 425F; the forty minutes quoted suits a piece of about 2.5 lb at that heat, but go by a thermometer rather than the clock.
- Leaf lardRendered fat from around the kidneys, prized for being clean-tasting and soft. Ordinary lard, beef dripping or clarified butter will do the same job here, which is simply to supply the fat the venison does not have.
- Basting "with its own gravy"A lean leg gives up very little. Add half a cup of stock or water to the pan at the start so there is something to spoon over, and top it up if it threatens to scorch.
- The five-pound pieceThe recipe roasts half and reserves half raw for Monday. If you are cooking the whole five pounds, allow roughly 12-15 minutes per pound at 425F and still check the temperature.
- Farmed versus wildMuch of the venison sold now is farmed red or fallow deer, milder and more evenly tender than the wild meat assumed here. Wild leg from an older animal is better braised or larded with pork fat before roasting.
- The gravySkimming and straining the pan juices gives a thin jus, not a thickened gravy. Deglaze the pan with a splash of stock or red wine while it is still hot to lift the browned residue.
- YieldThe half-leg as written serves four generously, with the currant jelly passed separately rather than spooned over.
Currant jelly with venison is a long-established English meat-and-fruit pairing, and by the time this book appeared it was fixed enough that the jelly is named in the title of the dish rather than treated as an option. The logic is the same as apple with pork or mint with lamb: an acid, sweet preserve cuts the dryness and faint gaminess of very lean meat. Red currants grew readily in northern gardens and set firmly without added pectin, which made the jelly a common store-cupboard item in both British and American households. The instruction to keep half the leg for Monday's luncheon is a reminder of how these books were written for a cook working a weekly plan.