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Some cooking tips

Here's some basic guidance for getting the most from your venison or game. These pages are being constructed at the moment, so check them periodically for recently added information.

Some venison roasting tips

We find the best results always come from being guided by a meat thermometer, an inexpensive and most useful kitchen item (a 'best buy' in our opinion); in practice, you'll find that experience will begin to guide you after a couple of attempts monitoring the meat thermometer carefully, and you'll be able to estimate fairly accurately the time required for each particular roast, but it is always good to remember that owing to the very fine fibre texture of venison when compared say, to beef, the heat will always be transferred more rapidly through the roast - so if you've not yet acquired a meat thermometer (which are available from your friendly local venison purveyor, ahem!), it is best to attempt to undercook the roast if you've not tried cooking venison in this way before. The cooking time is variable in every joint according to the size, thickness, oven type and characteristics, etc., but is almost always shorter than you might imagine, and can be as little as 15-18 minutes for one of our smaller roasts.

Here is Emma's preferred and very straightforward method:

1) Preheat oven to 200 deg Celsius;

2) Seal your joint in a hot frying pan, season and fix meat thermometer into the joint, and transfer it uncovered to the 200 deg. C oven;

3) Watch for the meat thermometer rising to show 55 deg C inside the joint; when it reaches 55 deg, turn the oven temperature down from 200 degrees to just 80 degrees C.;

4) In a short time, and again depending on the roast size and your oven, the temperature showing on the meat thermometer will reach 65 degrees C - this is the point to take out your roasting joint and let it rest;

5) You can now concentrate on making the gravy! The meat can rest quite happily for up to another half an hour without any deterioration.

We hope you will have the courage of our convictions to try cooking your venison in this simple manner, and feel certain you will agree once you've tried it, that this is an excellent method - trust the meat thermometer to tell you when it is ready! And remember, when roasted in this manner, the meat retains all its juicy succulence, so if you find you have some left over, cover it up closely when it becomes cool and put it in the fridge - thinly sliced when cold it makes the most delicious sandwiches for the next day or two; in addition to some nice fresh salad leaves, Emma prefers to dress hers with balsamic jelly or rowanberry, whilst I tend to reach for the horseradish sauce or sometimes redcurrant jelly, but either way the venison always stays juicy, tender, and most importantly - delicious!

So, have a go yourself now - Good luck!