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A browned venison loin cut into six thick slices, cooked through to an even greyish brown with no pink, its end left whole on a worn wooden board, with a small stoneware dish of thin brown vinegar sauce, a carving knife and a blue-grey cloth.
Roast venison loin in six slices, with a small dish of vinegar sauce.

Venysoun Rosted, Parboiled Roast Venison (1450)

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Medieval roast venison, venysoun rosted: venison loin boiled for a few minutes, then roasted hot and served sliced with a sharp sauce of vinegar and salt.

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Recipe makes
4 servings
Prep
Cook
Total

Heating the oven and the water takes the 15 minutes of preparation. The venison boils for 3 minutes, roasts for 15 to 25, then rests for 5 minutes before slicing, which the total includes.

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Roast venison loin in six slices, with a small dish of vinegar sauce.

The story behind the recipe

Thirteen fat does were brought into Bishop Swinfield’s household on Christmas Day 1289. Four went to the kitchen, and the rest were salted. The roll doesn’t say how the four were cooked. An English cookery book of about 1450 gives a venison roast in two lines: Venysoun rosted, fillets of venison boiled first and then roasted on a spit, with sauce.

How did medieval cooks roast venison?

The manuscript, Harleian MS. 4016, tells the cook to take “faire ffelettes of venesoun,” pick away the skin and the bone, parboil them and roast them on a spit. The same page parboils breasts of veal before they are larded and roasted, so the boil before the spit was no oddity of this one dish. The recipe ends with only “And sauce there-to.” It names no sauce. The roast kid just above it on the same page is sauced “with vinegre and salte,” and that is the sauce we give the venison.

The manuscript was written about 160 years after the roll, and the roll gives no hint of how the bishop’s cooks handled their four does. It is a different dish from the larded, clove-studded joint of Roast Venison with Vinegar Sauce (1623), which sits on a sauce of vinegar, crumbs, sugar and spice.

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Making it today

Venison loin, the long muscle along the back, is sold by game dealers and online. An oven at high heat stands in for the spit, and the butter brushed on before roasting is our addition; the manuscript names no fat. How long “parboile” lasts is our choice, and so is cooking the venison through to the temperature the USDA gives for it.

The other nine went into salt for 12d., and why that matters for reading the roll is the subject of What Did a Medieval Bishop Eat at Christmas?

Venysoun rosted. ¶ Take faire ffelettes of venesoun, and pike awey the skyn and þe bone, ...

Harleian MS. 4016 (about 1450)Venysoun rosted, in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, ed. Thomas Austin (London: Early English Text Society, 1888), p. 81

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Ingredients

For 4 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 4 servings.

  • Boneless venison loin, in two pieces700 g
  • Butter, melted15 g
  • Salt, for the venison1 tsp
  • Red wine vinegar4 tbsp
  • Salt, for the sauce1/4 tsp
Ingredients as written here
  • 700 g boneless venison loin, in two pieces
  • 15 g butter, melted
  • 1 tsp salt, for the venison
  • 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 0.25 tsp salt, for the sauce
Equipment
  • Large saucepan
  • Roasting pan with a rack
  • Instant-read thermometer
  • Small saucepan
  • Carving board and sharp knife

Instructions

  1. Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and set the rack in the roasting pan. Bring the large saucepan of water to a boil.

  2. Trim any silver skin from the venison loin. Lower the pieces into the boiling water, bring it back to the boil and cook for 3 minutes. Lift them out, discard the water and pat the meat dry.

  3. Brush the venison with the butter and season it with the salt, for the venison. Set it on the rack and roast for 15 to 25 minutes, turning once, until the thickest part reads 160°F (71°C).

  4. Lift the venison onto the carving board, cover it loosely and let it rest for 5 minutes.

  5. Meanwhile, put the red wine vinegar and the salt, for the sauce in the small saucepan with any juices from the roasting pan, and warm them through.

  6. Slice the venison thickly, pour the juices from the board into the sauce, and serve the sauce on the side for dipping.

Nutrition

240calories per serving

Recipe makes
4 servings
Servings
4

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for raw venison and butter, with the vinegar counted in full.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Allow about 175 g of loin per person. The thickness of the loin sets the roasting time, so go by the thermometer.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Venison is very lean, and at 160°F (71°C) it is firm all the way through; carve it across the grain. A loin thicker than about 6 cm will need longer in the oven. Leftovers keep 3 days, covered, in the refrigerator.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.

Sources and attribution

After Harleian MS. 4016, Venysoun rosted, as printed in Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, ed. Thomas Austin (London: Early English Text Society, 1888)

How we research

Recipe details

Course
Main course
Dish family
Meat & Poultry
Region
British
Era
Medieval
Event
Bishop Swinfield’s Christmas, 1289
Difficulty
Easy
Occasion
Christmas
Season
Winter