Focus on game menus: shoot to grill...

Grouse is available now and until mid-December, partridge from September and pheasant from October until the end of January, with fresh venison available for most of the year, depending on species.

But operators who really want to push the boat out need to think beyond the obvious seasonal favourites and look to offer a wider choice of meats — wild boar, rabbit, hare, pigeon and even grey squirrel, for example — where in many cases the benefit of no close season enables game to be served outside its traditional autumn/winter slot.

Game is also often seen as a better-for-you alternative to many other meats – which presents publicans with an opportunity to up-sell dishes given current consumer trends for healthy eating.

Standout specials​

Russell Allen, managing director of Warwickshire-based catering butchers Aubrey Allen — which supplies some of the UK’s top Michelin starred restaurants as well as pubs — says publicans should consider stocking small quantities of game for menu specials. “Buy a small amount and sell out rather than hold on to it” he says.

While early season grouse can provide a good marketing opportunity for pubs, Allen says operators who hold off until mid to late October — when other game is coming into season too — should be able to purchase the birds at far better value.

Best sellers in the pub market are partridge and pheasant. “Partridge is a lovely dish, relatively inexpensive and simple to prepare” he says.

Alan Hayward, managing director of English meat and game specialists Vicars Game, says: “Popular, novel and becoming affordable is a trio of game comprising a venison sausage, a partridge breast and a pigeon breast. Pheasant breast can be used as well.

“Restaurants tend to go in for just serving the breast — whether its partridge, grouse, or pigeon — the whole bird isn’t so popular anymore.”

Vicars Game sells more than 5,000 deer carcasses and handles up to 200,000 birds a year from estates all over the country, selling to 150 pubs and restaurants every day within a 40 mile radius of its base near Reading in Berkshire.

Hayward adds: “Always popular and easy to do are venison casseroles and stews. A game mixture — comprising birds that have been badly shot along with hare, rabbit and venison — is good for use in casseroles. Steaks and burgers are always popular, and venison provides a great alternative to beef and pork.”  

Deer, oh deer​

Britain is home to six species of deer — the most popular among diners being red, roe, fallow and sika.

Venison from roe deer is delicate with a finer texture than other alternatives and tends to be more expensive, while red deer are extensively farmed for meat.

Andy Waugh, owner-chef of the Soho-based Wild Game Co, runs street food pop-ups across London that serve venison steaks and burgers from wild Scottish deer.

The flavour and texture of venison is consistent, Waugh says. “It’s a lean meat.

“Don’t cook the hell out of it; you just have to be delicate with it. Flavour and juiciness can be enhanced by topping burgers with caramelised onion and melted cheese.” 

For those looking for modernity, Waugh says: “Stay away from the traditional juniper berry and red wine sauces because they’re seen as stuffy and boring — albeit fantastically flavoured.” 

Instead, he recommends chefs experiment with various marinades, gravies and sauces using ingredients such as black treacle, fruit based sauces and flavour enhancers.

For instance, he recommends Dijon mustard combined with a range of ingredients including redcurrant jelly or brown sugar. 

The pie life​

Jacqui Cremins, landlady and cook at the Lamb Inn, Spaxton, Somerset, has become renowned for her venison pies.

She says the most important consideration is to make sure the meat is tender and the pie flavoursome.

“Venison pie is quite intricate; there are quite a lot of individual ingredients.”

Her venison and stilton pie uses chunks of fresh local venison cooked with herbs, port and local ale with Stilton and a savoury shortcrust top. Other ingredients include carrots, onions, parsnips and garlic.

The pies are made in batches. “We cook it in a thickened stock” she says. “It’s quite a lot of preparation, three hours or more preparing all the vegetables and sealing the meat.

“Then we put it all in a big pot with the other ingredients to simmer for about an hour and a half.”

The venison is supplied by Somerset butcher Malcolm Pyne, who says venison is no longer the expensive meat it used to be, with some now available for the same price as beef.

Combining venison with a good sauce is the way to a good profit margin, he says. “Black cherry sauce works beautifully with venison.”

He also advises publicans to “follow the market at the time”, buying when the season is a few months old, with supplies plentiful and prices down from their season-start high.

“There are times when you can get pheasants for next to nothing,” he maintains.

He advises buying a brace of feathered pheasants for about a fifth of the price of a pair of prepared birds, removing the skin, cutting each side of the breastbone and pan frying the breasts.

“Combined with a sauce there is an excellent profit margin to be had’, he says. 

No ifs or cuts​

Pubs that butcher game, rather than buying in ready prepared products, must obtain a game licence. This is being increasingly enforced to ensure premises have adequate waste management procedures.

Price sensitivity​

This year the price of a medium-sized grouse bought now can cost anything from £8.95 to about £5 depending on the supplier. 

Oven-ready pheasant and partridges are likely to be priced between £5 and £3 a bird when the season gets into full swing in the autumn.

Some dealers and wholesalers run price promotions when there is an abundance of game available.  Prices will vary with the weather, as shoots don’t go out when it rains.

Hare and now​

ETM Group site the Jugged Hare, Moorgate, specialises in game and uses the fact in promotions through the year.

Through this month (August) until January next year, it is set to hold dozen events celebrating game, including private masterclasses from October to February where up to 16 diners at a time can learning to de-feather, truss, butcher and dress various game birds.

Guests then tuck into a three-course game feast including matched wines for £150 a head.

Other highlights of the Jugged Hare’s season include a series of gourmet-game-and-fine-wines dinners, Jugged Squirrel Week (28 Sept-4 Oct), National Pheasant Week (16-22 Nov), a ‘pheastival’ of pheasant plucking and cooking competitions (21 Nov) and a chef’s competition to create ‘the game dish of the season’ (25 Jan).