Treacle Cured Venison

Major Dad

Ate in an English country pub at the week-end and has a most fantastic Treacle Cured Venison dish. For got to ask the chef for recipe when I was leaving and there's nothing on Google.
Any suggestions ? It was presented like roast duck breast so I'm assuming it was a venison steak. Would I sear/seal it first and then cover it in treacle before baking ?
Cheers

Whistlejacket

There's a recipe for treacle cured bacon in Darina Allen's Irish traditional cooking. Basically it's a dry cure with the sugar substituted with treacle.

I'd try swopping out the sugar for treacle, molasses or honey in this basic cure mix:
For every 1kg of meat use 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, a few juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, finely chopped.

Rub the mixture thoroughly into the meat and leave in the fridge in a plastic container. Prop up one end so that the liquid can run away from the meat as the cure draws it out. Leave for 1-10 days depending on how salty you like it, turning it daily. Then rinse off the cure and hang it up to dry.

Even a few hours in the cure makes a difference, the meat picks up the salt and herb/spice flavour and the texture changes a bit, it gets slightly firmer. I like to cure steaks for an hour or two before I BBQ them in the summer.

I think I would try a treacle cure out with something cheaper than venison initially e.g. some pork belly and probably start with a short cure on the version to see how it handles it. There's so little fat I'd be worried a long cure would be complete overkill. It does sound intriguing though, I'll definitely try it out next version season.

You could just add the treacle before putting it in the oven as you said also, a bit like glazing a ham then. I'd probably mix it with some demerara sugar or similar to make a paste, I'd imagine just treacle on its own would run off quickly in the oven and burn on the bottom of the roasting tin.