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…
Food
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…
Roasted shoulder of venison recipe for Easter
Recipe for roast shoulder of venison Ingredients 1.2 kg shoulder venison 1 bottle good red wine 275 ml game stock 4 tbsp olive oil Mixed peppercorns Juniper berries 6 large baking potatoes 100 grams butter 1 small cauliflower 1 small cabbage 2 large carrots fresh parsley 150 ml whipping cream Method Bone, roll and tie a shoulder of venison and…
Pheasant tagine with lemon couscous
Cooking pheasant It is essential to remember that pheasant needs a different approach to chicken if used as a substitute. Pheasant, on or off the bone, dries out swiftly even when cooked in liquid — in a casserole, for example. Cook it very gently and it will retain its juices…
An easy recipe for pheasant katsu curry
This recipe for tandoori pheasant with lemongrass and ginger rice is a fresh way of cooking pheasant that will help you work your way through a freezer full of game
Easy game chilli recipe
There is great pleasure to be taken from filling the fridge and the freezer with food you have provided. Whether that be shot game, foraged fruit or fungi, vegetables from the garden or herbs from the wayside, it is extremely satisfying. Like many Shooting Times readers I jealously guard my…
What food is best for my gundog puppy?
I'm 15 years old and about to buy a ten week old cocker spaniel bitch. At the moment it is being fed on Beta puppy food as I'm planning to work her when she’s older.
A simple recipe for venison sausages
Venison sausages by Barry Stoffell. Making sausages at home requires little specialist knowledge or equipment. As a minimum, you will need a way of mincing the ingredients and a means of getting the result into an edible tube. Simple hand-cranked mincers — the sort that your grandmother had — can…