Recipe for venison pie – the perfect supper for chilly, dark evenings
Pies are perfect for lunch and supper and ideal for a picnic or a shoot lunch. This venison pie serves six.
Now the nights are drawing in and it’s getting chilly, there’s nothing better than to sit down to a warming supper. So here’s a venison pie recipe from the Museum Inn, Farnham, Dorset, which uses venison from the local Rushmore Estate.
(For a twist, investigate this recipe for venison pie topped with mashed potato. Or try this recipe for venison bourguignon pie.) The stout adds a delicious richness to the dish. If you don’t have any game stock, use a good quality stock bought from the supermarket. If you’re making the pastry, remember to take the butter out of the fridge to soften beforehand. Alternatively, there is no shame in buying ready made puff pastry.
Venison pie with wild garlic and stout
Ingredients
Filling
- 1kg diced and trimmed venison
- 2 large cloves crushed garlic
- 4 carrots (diced)
- 2 onions (diced)
- 1 stick celery (diced)
- Spring of thyme
- Sprig of rosemary
- 250ml stout
- 500ml game stock (you can use chicken stock if none available)
- 100ml red wine
- Salt/pepper
Pastry
- 1kg plain flour
- 200g plain flour (for rolling out the pastry)
- 250g unsalted butter
- 250g lard
- 250ml water
- Salt
- 2 eggs
NB: (If you’re in a hurry, you can buy good ready roll puff pastry at supermarkets in the chilled section. )
Method
Pastry
Crumble the flour, lard and butter
Add the water and salt until mixture binds together
Wrap in cling film, or a bees wax wrap preferably, and leave in the fridge to rest.
Filling
- Put a frying pan on to medium to high heat and allow to heat up.
- Place the diced venison into the hot pan and season. Once sealed place into a colander and allow any excess fat to drain off.
- Add the red wine to the frying pan, scraping and stirring the browned bits from the pan over a moderate-high heat to melt everything into the liquid. Take off the heat and keep to one side.
- Heat up a large deep solid based sauce pan.
- Fry off carrots, garlic, onions, celery and herbs.
- Add in the fried venison.
- Add red wine liquid, stout and game stock.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook until the venison is tender (roughly 2 hours).
- Allow to cool and place in fridge to set. This will make assembling the pies easier.
Making the pies
- Cut the pastry into 6 equal 200g chunks, keeping 6 x 100g back for each lid
- Roll out the larger chunks of pastry, making sure they are big enough to cover the pie dishes
- Add filling, roughly 250g, into the pastry lined pie dishes
- Roll out the smaller chunks of pastry
- Egg wash the rim of the pastry and place over the lid (egg washing gives a lovely gold shiny crust)
- Cut off any excess pastry and crimp the sides with a fork
- Egg wash the top and bake 180c for 25 mins until golden brown
Enjoy.
This recipe was originally published in 2019 and has been updated.
