Beer and Food Matching: Raise your game

For too many consumers, the immediate, reaction to the suggestion of ordering game is a shudder.

For too long, the frankly unpleasant practice of 'hanging' game for days or even weeks - something probably only explicable as revenge by downtrodden gamekeepers on their employers - has, literally and figuratively, left a nasty taste.

For Jose Suoto, chef lecturer at Westminster Kingsway College, convincing the nation to rethink their view of game has become something of a personal crusade. From pheasant and partridge to rabbit, hare and venison, there is a wealth of high quality, local food available - much of it going to waste as a by-product of shooting parties or culling as part of estate management.

"The idea that game has to be hung until it's rotten and even maggoty is ridiculous," says Jose. "A game bird gets and adrenalin rush when it's shot and you have to leave it a day or two for the meat to relax and the adrenalin flavour to subside - but that's all."

Pub menus have traditionally been a good outlet for the sale of game, and that's a tradition Jose hopes can be revived. To promote his passion, in partnership with Beer Academy founder Rupert Ponsonby, Jose organised a beer and game matching evening for chefs and a few well-chosen beer and enthusiasts including Mark Dorber, licensee of the Anchor in Walberswick, Suffolk.

Without the need for the thick, piquant sauces traditionally used to disguise the taste of overhung game, Jose and his team were able to able to focus on the natural flavours, and their suitability as a match with a range of beers.

The results

The most popular matches to the dishes served were:

• Pan fried breast of partridge served with porcini mushroom cream sauce - Manns brown ale
• Pan fried breast of pheasant with Normandy sauce- Blue Moon American wheat beer
• Roast breast of wild mallard with orange and lemon jus base - Kwak Belgian ale and Rochefort Trappist ale
• Pan fried breast of wood pigeon with teriyaki - Liefmans Kriek
• Roast crown of woodcock with mulled win jus - Liefmans Kriek
• Roast saddle of hare with red wine and chocolate - Ringwood Old Thumper
• Roast saddle of rabbit with dijon, tarragon & white wine sauce - Ringwood Old Thumper
• Venison carpaccio with aged balsamic dressing - Duvel
• Smoked venison loin with fruit chutney - Marston's Pedigree
• Roast cannon of venison with thyme infused jus - Innis and Gunn Oak Aged beer
• Pan fried venison haunch with redcurrant jus - Bacchus Raspberry
• Stewed venison forequarter with root veg with red wine sauce - Worthington White Shield