Roast Venison, Ancient Roman Style

This is a dish I am adapting from that most famous of cookbooks from Ancient Rome: Apicius. The translation I am using oddly includes corn starch (!), which was not discovered until long after the discovery of the New World, so I am omitting it here.

This venison roast is typical of Roman meats: Sweet, salty, herby. Since this dish is essentially a roast with sauce, I’d serve it with polenta or mashed potatoes. Too New World for you? Then eat it with farro. Just substitute farro for rice in your favorite risotto recipe.

Serves 4

  • 2 pounds venison roast (as usual, elk, moose, caribou, etc will substitute. If you have no game available, use lamb.)
  • 1 teaspoon rue, minced (If you can’t find rue, use rosemary, but it will not be the same.)
  • 1 tablespoon lovage, minced (If you can’t find lovage, use celery leaves from the top of the stalks.)
  • 1 tablespoon oregano, minced
  • 1 tablespoon mint, minced
  • 1 tablespoon, parsley, minced
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 minced medium white or yellow onion
  • 1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce (the closest modern equivalent to garum)
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1 cup sweet wine (I’d use angelica, but you could use white port or muscat)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • salt and pepper

 

  1. Salt venison roast about 12 hours. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.
  2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  3. In a pan, add olive oil, then brown venison on all sides. When browned, place in an ovenproof roasting pan in oven. Cook for about 30 minutes, then check internal temperature. You are looking for about 140 degrees. This could take as long as 90 minutes, but after the first half-hour, check every 15 minutes. Different shapes of a roast cook at different rates, so this is why I am suggesting the constant checking.
  4. In a mortar and pestle, mash all the herbs together with the garlic and a pinch of salt until it’s a paste.
  5. Once the roast is done, let it rest and tent it under foil. Add flour to pan to make a roux. Stir and cook over medium heat until its tan-to-brown.
  6. Add onion and cook it until it’s translucent.
  7. Add sweet wine to deglaze, let this reduce over high heat by half. Reduce heat to medium, add fish sauce, honey, then the herb-garlic mixture. The sauce should be thicker than water, thinner than syrup. Think turkey gravy. Taste to adjust for seasoning; fish sauce is very salty, so you will probably not need more salt. 
  8. Slice the roast thinly, lay down sauce, and serve it forth!

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