Wild Game
Musing here in the snow. Just opened a packet of Venison Sausage from M & S, surprised to see they are made from New Zealand Venison. With an abundance of game (Deer are now considered a pest in many parts of the UK) available at remarkably low prices. I get pheasants in the feather for £1 a brace and Partridge and Ducks for £1-50. Just a little work and excellent food for the freezer. They must be better, healthier and more eco friendly than supermarket chickens . If a bit squeamish pheasants are readily available oven ready in farm shops for about the same price as chickens. So I wonder o myself why we don't make more use of this plentiful supply. Any answers? Surprisingly everyone wants the trout I catch, provided cleaned. yet these are stocked Rainbows reared like intensive chickens.
Comments
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Fisherman - totally agree with your sentiments - however am surprised that you are having to pay for your pheasants! Most shoots around here couldn't give them away since the supply chain to Europe collapsed. I was given a sackful at the end of the season and needless to say they are now in the freezer where they will provide delicious meals for some time to come.
Your comment about people being squeemish with food made me smile. My wife bought a whole salmon in the supermarket recently and although it was in a large plastic bag, checkout assistant refused to handle it because it had eyes and was looking at her!
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Don't mind gutting and cleaning and agree with you, F, that venison should be from the UK, same as Rose Veal. Can't see why we import Lamb or Venison.
I love trout but not farmed trout. Sea Trout for me so a rare treat.
RandR we had something similar happen when we bought some squid and check out person nearly fainted. Wouldn't handle it. I actually swiped it through her machine.
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,Unfortunately wild salmon and sea trout are now a rarity. Even river trout are in huge decline. Number of reasons but predation by Cormorants and Sawbill ducks are a major factor here in our rivers. I am lucky that I have access to a number of mountain lakes that still have a healthy head of wild brownies. I will retain perhaps half a dozen per season for my own consumption. Farmed rainbows are for someone else. Those interested may like to read my letter in April "Trout and Salmon" and the article on Bugeilyn lake, one of my favourites.
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Not to mention the predation by the ever increasing population of seals in our coastal waters. I regularly fish the Welsh Dee (amonst others) and the seals are seen as far up river as Chester.
Wild salmon and sea-trout, for those that have tasted them, sadly are going to become a delicacy of the past. The new bye-laws which are being proposed will no doubt ban the taking of the species from our rivers, for the forseeable future. There are so many arguments, for and against and it's not something I want to introduce to this thread, but it's an argument which has been raging for 20 years or more.
I share your sentiments entirely Fish and don't even bother to pack the rods anymore when we go touring, nor do I buy venison from New Zealand, or indeed, their lamb.
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I've been brought up eating quality venison shot on the local estate. Much better taste that the farmed variety. Brown trout caught in the local river tastes every bit as good as it did years ago.. Local Pork, Lamb and Game birds are just the same.
Yes we pay slightly more at the local farm shops, but quality has it's own value.
K
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For the masses rabbit started to fall out of fashion around the 60s for a variety of reasons. Today I enjoy rabbit but only when on the menu at a restaurant. This I regularly see on menus abroad but very rarely indeed at home. Silly really as its a meat which my parents and their generation 'purchased' and ate regularly. However, that may be one contributory reason for its demise as a British ingredient in our every day cooking, it was considered common. The other reason may be the 'bunny factor' (like that bambi factor with venison) and that awful deliberately introduced disease which was designed to keep their ever growing numbers down.
Clean and health rabbit is out there, could once again be abundant in shops, cheap and delicious, we just don't want to eat it.
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I agree that myxomatosis has all but gone as there is a high degree of immunity among the wild population. I have not personally cooked rabbit for over 30 years as it is not readily available locally.
The effects of myxomatosis I believe are still there with regard to public perception towards diet.
I have never avoided the other available products
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I will eat captive bred and raised 'game' but am not an advocate of wild game shot in the outdoor wild environments. This indescriminate spread of toxic lead across many wlldlife areas is detrimentally effecting the health of and killing more birds and animals than are being cleanly shot. This should, in my opinion, be stopped immediately.
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Interestingly, or sadly maybe, we hear today that lamb and mutton has fallen out of favour with the British palate much like rabbit did in he 50s and 60s. The farmers raising 'sheep meat' really are suffering with market demand and the future is looking bleak, or should that be bleat!
Apparently we Brits just don't enjoy lamb like we used to!0 -
Some of the shooting brigade, but by no means all, have fought the imposition of "Non Lead" shot all the way, even tho' it is permitted in certain areas and on certain targets.
However even if the use of lead was totally banned today, the amount of lead already lying out there would still cause many slow deaths in wildlife.
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