February marks the end of the wild duck and hare seasons. Conscientious eaters will also want to put venison, wood pigeon, rabbit and squirrel on their menus this month. Try these sustainable meats with succulent forced rhubarb or get foraging for young nettles, chickweed and velvet shank mushrooms.
On cold January nights, it can be difficult to stick to New Year resolutions to eat well. The good news is game is naturally leaner and higher in nutrients than mass farmed meats. It’s also ideal for batch cooking into nourishing soups and pies with other seasonal ingredients, including celeriac and celery.
Our free-range geese are reared not far from us by Philip Hunter of Yew Tree Farm, where they enjoy a happy, natural life on a diet of foraged grass and home-grown cereals. We spoke to Philip to find out why this is so important and why he recommends goose for your Christmas dinner.
When cold winds bite, warm yourself up with autumnal stews and mouthwatering roasts. Game is the unreserved star of the show now, supported by frost-sweetened vegetables and roasted chestnuts.
Goat is a staple meat around the world yet rarely makes it on to British plates. If you’d like to give it a go, follow our cooking tips to discover for yourself just how good goat can be.
Deciding what to cook for dinner is never more exciting than it is in October. The game season is in full swing and autumnal fruits and vegetables provide depth and sweetness to comforting meals.
It’s an exciting time for game lovers with new-season partridge and wild duck fresh on the menu alongside hare and grouse. Guinea fowl is also at its best in early autumn and with an abundance of wild fruit available for sweet accompaniments as well as aubergines, peppers and other tasty vegetables, cooking this month is a true pleasure.
Many grouse shoots have been cancelled this year due to reduced numbers, which are the result of this year’s extreme weather. We provide an update on the situation and explain why the weather conditions have affected grouse so severely.
With so many indoor and outdoor smokers now on the market, smoking meat and fish at home is easier than ever before. We show you how to add the flavour of woodsmoke to your favourite game and share some top tips from Charlotte Pike, author of Smoked.
The first of August marks the start of the hare season while the grouse season famously begins on the Glorious Twelfth, when gardens are full of tasty ripe accompaniments… August is also a great month for fish and we’ve got some fresh ideas for our smoked haddock and an underused British classic, kippers.
Gardens, hedgerows and woodlands provide rich picking in July. Combine foraged mushrooms with wood pigeon, wild venison or rabbit for seasonal dishes that are 100% wild and 100% delicious or raid the garden for a feast with summer fruits or vegetables.
When people try genuine wild boar, they’re often surprised how different it is to pork. If you’ve yet to taste the unique and moreish flavour of wild boar or you’d like advice on the best cooking methods, here’s what you need to know.
May gave us all a chance to rediscover the joy of al fresco cooking and eating with its glorious sunshine. Now that June is here we’re fully up to speed and ready for some new ideas! Get ready for strawberry season, fruity chutneys to pair with barbecued game and picnics, early summer vegetables, and a salty taste of the seaside.
May is here and tastes amazing. The asparagus season is here, Jersey Royals are finally available, and the barbecues are out. Life is good! If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on this month’s bounty, read on for our guide to the best of May’s seasonal ingredients.
Now that the clocks have changed and the evenings are longer, it’s time to savour the vibrant flavours of spring. Versatile game lends itself just as well to these quick and fresh meals as it does to hearty feasts so, whatever the weather does in changeable April, our seasonal ideas should steer you through.
What should we be eating this month to make the most of March’s seasonal ingredients? Many game seasons are now closed but there are still plenty of delicious fresh game options to pair with the last of the winter crops and early spring fruit and vegetables.
The most plentiful edible wild bird, woodpigeon is available throughout the year. Its meat is versatile with a lovely wild, gamey flavour. Here are our tips for cooking wood pigeon and some of our favourite recipes.
If you’re looking to lose weight, tone up, or build muscle, many fitness experts will recommend a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. Wild game is generally higher in protein and nutrients than farmed meats, while also being lower in fat – which is why Hollywood’s Chris Pratt said he would only wild meat on the diet he dubbed his ‘game plan’.
It was Katharine Hepburn who said, “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” When it comes to choosing the centrepiece for Christmas dinner, there’s only one rule that we never break, and that’s just make sure it’s tasty!
Would you like to come home to a hearty pheasant casserole or partridge curry created by River Cottage’s former Head Chef Tim Maddams? And feed someone in crisis at the same time?
For game lovers, the unique rich taste of hare is a delicacy. Fortunately for us in Suffolk, hare is abundant despite concerns about populations in the South-West and elsewhere in the UK. It’s a regular feature on our menus, thanks to our continuous supply – and we’d like to ensure it remains a taste everyone in the country can savour.
Following on from the success of our fabulous wild venison masterclass with Gill Meller and the accompanying tour of the Wild Meat Co premises for the Guild of Food Writers, their President, and esteemed Daily Telegraph food writer, Xanthe Clay, was also treated to a Suffolk wild venison experience recently.
Many Americans consider squirrel the best meat in the woods – yet very few Brits have even tried it. Sweet and nutty, squirrel is a highly sustainable and delicious meat that we would like to see on many more plates.
Helping consumers learn all about wild game and its provenance, traceability and preparation, is a massively important part of what we do at the Wild Meat Company. Education plays a vital role in getting people to understand the ethical and nutritional benefits associated with sourcing food that has been neither intensively reared, not industrially killed.
