Selle de Chevreuil à la Baden-Baden

Selle de Chevreuil à la Baden-Baden (saddle of venison with unsugared spiced pears) teaches the discipline that game demands: moisture is the enemy of colour. The saddle comes from an aromatic marinade carrying all the seasoning it needs, but before it meets the butter, its surface must be dried until it feels almost tacky. Leave it wet and it will grey rather than bronze, however splendid the venison.

The original assumed a five-quart preparation of marinade, a deep poêling pan, a saucier at the elbow, and game stock never off the fire. Here, a small saddle for four needs only one quart of the finished marinade, a snug covered roasting pan, a fine sieve, and a gravy separator. The cloth straining and service holding were brigade scaffolding, so they go. The Cooked Marinade for Venison, butter-rich poëling, ten-minute extraction of the roasting vegetables, unsugared pears, arrowroot finish, and separate redcurrant jelly are the dish itself, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished saddle should arrive rosy beneath a burnished surface, with tender pear halves at either end and a clear, lightly thickened jus gleaming in its sauceboat. Dry the joint thoroughly before cooking. That is the one step you cannot negotiate, and the one that gives everything after it a chance to be magnificent.