Game Food for Thought - some game-orientated facts.
The Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg, apparently always ate his lunch at 3.00pm and the menu would often include "ptarmigan and beer and fish dishes".
It is said that when the novelist Ernest Hemingway was too poor to feed his family whilst living in Paris, he killed feral pigeons in the Luxembourg Gardens and took them home to eat, concealed in his son's pram!
The English novelist Anthony Powell wrote of one of his characters, "He is so wet you could shoot snipe off him" - a reference to the snipe's love of boggy areas
Lord Byron claimed to have "no palate", but nevertheless, was fond of "woodcock, lobsters and brandy"!
In Regency times, young 'bucks' would often drop in at their London club in order to finish off their evening with a late night dish of devilled game. These consisted of all manner of bones such as the backbone of a pheasant or the legs of wild duck or grouse, which had been doused in all manner of sauces and were traditionally eaten with the fingers.
Mrs Beeton's oft-quoted saying, "First catch your hare", although often used, it is, in fact, not only misquoted, but also misattributed! The original bon mot began life as "Take your hare when it is cased" and, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, it was not written by Mrs Beeton.
There is much to be said about the hare in connection with game cookery. It has undoubtedly, very dark meat and older animals can have a very strong taste - both factors tend to put people off from trying it. An old Suffolk countryman once summed this attitude up in saying:
"I remember poaching hares in the early '20s, and the price that time would be about 7s. 6d. for a hare - much more than you got for a day's work. No, I don't like eating hare. In fact, I've never tried it. I think it's because of the meat; it's very dark, and there's a lot of blood: people don't like the blood and there's a smell that a lot of people don't like. The meat is very strong."
Mary I, (Bloody Mary), Queen of England, Wales and Ireland and the eldest daughter of Henry VIII was reputed to be "particularly fond of wild boar meat". At that time, the boar's head was considered to be quite a delicacy and, because of the interest in hunting, the wild boar survived in England up until the 17th century. Without the patronage of royalty and noblemen, natural stocks of wild boar would probably have died out long before then due to its tendency to destroy the crops being grown in newly felled areas of woodland (Boar meat is once again becoming readily available in the UK, both from the ever-increasing feral numbers and as a result of being farmed as alternative meat).
It seems that in years gone by, many regions had their own pie particular to the locality. Of course the most famous of these must be the Leicestershire Melton Mowbray pork pie, but others included the 'squab' pies of Devon - not as one might suppose, made of young pigeon, but of mutton and apple. The Shropshire pie contains rabbit meat and the Coventry pie, unlike its Devon counterpart, does actually consist of pigeons.
There is a long tradition of eating rook pie and 12 May was once the official rook-shooting day in many parts of the British Isles. The date was chosen because it was the time when the majority of young rooks were leaving the nest. Known as 'branchers', they were easy to shoot with specially made rook rifles and the young meat was very tender, making a pie a popular meal, especially for the poor and latterly during World War II, when meat was very scarce.
Any leftover cooked venison makes an excellent Deerstalker's pie, well seasoned with tomato purée, garlic and Worcester sauce. Add variety by including sliced, steamed leeks in white sauce on top of the minced cooked venison. Alternate the topping from the usual one of mashed potato by creating a savoury crumble topping of butter rubbed into flour, on the top of which could be sprinkled porridge oats - thus keeping up the Scottish deerstalker theme.
Mushrooms are the natural partners of game and, as the famous chef and fungi aficionado, Antonio Carluccio, points out in his book, A Passion for Mushrooms, (Pavilion Books, 1989), in parts of Italy where both are found in excess, it is not unusual to find restaurants where the menu is made up entirely of these two ingredients.
Marinades help to breakdown meat fibres as well as imbibing them with subtle tastes. They also counteract the possibility of dryness as the meat cooks. Meat joints should be left in a marinade for at least twelve hours in order to bring out the best flavours. Remember to turn the meat occasionally during that time. It may be that some joints and whole game birds are too big to be totally immersed in a marinade -in such cases, the easiest way of ensuring that the meat has received its full share of marinade is to place it and the mixture into a strong plastic bag and securely tie the neck. Then, it is a simple matter to periodically turn the bag over.
Karl Marx often told enquirers that his favourite food was fish and his preferred drink, brandy. Not a bad combination I must admit, but generally, a crisp white wine is a better option for most kinds of fish. Try Muscadet, Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé; young Chablis, dry Champagne or Vinho Verde.
The late Sir Michael Hordern, very much a keen fisherman, once had a strange encounter on the riverbank.
"Many years ago while fishing at night for sea-trout on the Dart, I heard (but couldn't see) a figure on the opposite bank, also fishing, singing wordlessly, the choral Last Movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. When she paused I took it up and thereafter antiphonally. We met by daylight and became life-long friends."
As well as Beethoven, the mystery lady apparently also had a great fondness for Pike Pie, which she insisted on eating accompanied by champagne!
The French insist that a wooden salad bowl is best, the inside of which should first be rubbed with a cut clove of garlic. Place any dressing at the bottom of the bowl before adding the salad ingredients, but do not toss them until immediately before serving, otherwise the leaves will begin to wilt. Traditionally, salad servers must be placed crossed and resting over the rim of the bowl.
Cook Game
If you don't know what to do with game and are rather apprehensive about cooking it, or if you are already a game cook and wish to expand your knowledge, then you will find this comprehensive book of enormous interest. Cook Game takes the cook back to basics one minute and is mouth-wateringly adventurous the next.
Containing over 180 delicious game/fish recipes and over 40 other recipes covering marinades, sauces, stocks and accompaniments, it provides recipes for 'fast food' and dishes that are particularly suitable for children and presents special guest recipes as well as a chapter of helpful hints. Cook Game also includes some 'exotic' recipes for ostrich, kangaroo and crocodile.
