Venison is rich in protein, low in fat and cholesterol. It’s also high in nutrients. So it’s pretty much a super food. It’s a popular choice to serve in restaurants and events – and thereby lies the current problem. Because of COVID-19 the market for venison in the hospitality industry…
Food
How to create and use a homemade smoker
Types of smoking There are, generally speaking, two types of smoking: cold smoking and hot smoking. It is the heated variety that we will be dealing with. This has the advantage of not only being simple and easy but of cooking the food at the same time as it is…
Three marinade recipes for game and venison
Why marinate meat? Planning ahead and creating marinades for game and venison is really worthwhile. So if you’re planning a barbecue, soak the meat in a marinade for a few days before cooking. This will help to tenderise it by breaking down the muscle fibres. Don’t leave it in the…
Tips for cooking game on a barbecue (and where to buy top quality meat online)
Barbecuing game is an ideal way to cook pheasant and venison. We asked keen game cook, professional barbecuer and hunter Joe Carhart of GameChanger BBQ for his tips. Top tips for barbecuing game Break the mould and be adventurous with your game cooking. It doesn’t have to be stews and…
A recipe for bruschetta using pigeon breasts
A recipe for bruschetta that uses delicious and delicate pigeon breasts
Who has won in the Eat Game Awards this year?
The annual Eat Game Awards, in association with Taste of Game and Purdey, reward those who encourage the cooking and eating of game and wild British produce, whether they excel in retail or in impressive culinary achievement. The nominees are chosen by the public. The consumption of game is rising…
This family switched to eating game for a nearly a year. What happened?
Our wild game diet It has now been a year since my family last bought meat from a supermarket. The only exceptions are sausages and bacon made from free-range pigs and that is purely because life would be diminished without pork products and none of my friends keep pigs. We…
Seven days of game dinners for a family of four – £1.79 per person a day
We hope that our readers are managing this extraordinary period of coronavirus and staying well. Feeding a family isn’t always easy at the best of times, particularly when you can’t go out or are having to self-isolate. So we think this family food pack from not-for-profit company Wild and Game…
Seven store cupboard pheasant recipes to make while you’re self-isolating
An easy way to put together the classic dish of roast pheasant
A recipe for smoked pheasant
I like the combination of the smoky pheasant breast with the sweet and tangy roasted squash, while the pickled cabbage lifts it up and the green sauce stops it being too rich or flat. The magic of this smoked pheasant recipe is curing and smoking the pheasant breast to produce…
Why every shooter needs a pheasant crowner
The very simple designs are often the best ones and this applies to a new game processor. I went to meet Dougie Bell, who invented the pheasant crowner, and John Relph of T. W. Relph and Sons Ltd, which markets it in conjunction with Solway Feeders. The shining machine, fixed…
Wild roast goose recipe for Christmas
Farmed geese can be costly and not feed anywhere near as many as you may think. We all know that a truly wild goose would be far better, perhaps even two or three. But they say wild geese are not any good for eating; they are mostly shot for pest…
Restaurant review: Le Bab
Shopping. Love it or hate it, sometimes you have to brace yourself and get on with it, especially in the run-up to Christmas. Personally I’m not a hobby shopper and one of the only things that makes a day of shopping bearable is the prospect of a delicious lunch. So…
How to make sure your game arrives on the plate in perfect condition
Keeping game in perfect condition Game as a meat is no different from any other product — if you want to increase its value and demand for it, it needs to be a quality product to start with. Small, damaged and poorly handled birds — the bane of game dealers’…
The Oxford Blue Pub review: Where you can enjoy game and venison from HM The Queen’s estates
On the first properly cold autumn night of the year I drove west along the M4 to investigate the Oxford Blue Pub, just outside Old Windsor. My companion kept telling me that he was starving because all he’d had time to eat that day was a banana. “Good” I said,…
Why gut rabbits straight away but not hares?
On the shoot where I beat the keeper always guts rabbits as soon as they are shot.
Why all fieldsports fans should vote in the Eat Game Awards 2019
At the Game Fair this year I sat down with Annette Woolcock, who is head of BASC’s Taste of Game campaign and a co-founder of the Eat Game Awards (EGA), which were launched last year. Annette set up the EGA with James Horne (Chairman of Purdey and Founder of Guns…
How it took a day’s hunting for me to understand ethical meat
I am languishing on my patio, riding out the horror of a three-day, post-music-festival hangover, when the phone rings. It’s Patrick Galbraith, an old friend and the Editor of Shooting Times. “Hi pal, I’ve been thinking about cooking up some squirrels and a deer and I was wondering if you…
How to prepare and dress a woodpigeon
Woodpigeon shooting provides fantastic, healthy meat and is a sustainable food source. The pigeon is an agricultural pest but it is only ethical that the shot birds are put to good use. Many people are put off by the thought of dressing birds, but instead of just giving the game…
How to sell your game without going through a game dealer
Last year the game market was one of the best to date for game dealers selling into home and international markets. Across the south of England the three main dealers were reporting that they were short of pheasants. The economics of the game market are complex but game dealers, despite…