It's lean, tasty and far from dear – venison gets its day

Published on Thursday 3 September 2009 22:03

IT WAS once a delicacy dished up only to aristocracy, but now a national day is to be devoted to Scottish venison in a drive to get everyone to give it a taste.

Today is the first Scottish Venison Day – an annual event that will aim to put the meat firmly on the culinary map.

The environment minister, Richard Lochhead, was due to launch the day by eating a venison breakfast at Atholl Estate in Perthshire, at the start of a two-week celebration of Scottish food and drink.

The prestigious Ivy restaurant in London is also taking part in the launch of the annual celebration, which will take place every 4 September.

A website promoting venison recipes and providing information about where to buy the meat will also go live.

A spokesman said: "The Scottish venison producers, in terms of wild and farmed venison, have never got together to do anything with their product. This is an initiative to put Scottish venison on the map."

He said if the British sausage deserved an entire week of celebration, then Scottish venison deserved at least a day.

One selling point that it is hoped will help to encourage the British to buy venison is its extremely low fat levels.

It has less than 2 per cent fat, making it even leaner than skinless chicken, according to experts. And Nichola Fletcher, author of the award-winning Nichola Fletcher's Ultimate Venison Cookery, told The Scotsman that, although there was the perception it was an expensive meat, this was not always the case.

"If you simply look at the price per kilo, then some of the cuts are quite pricey. But if you look at it as price per portion, then it's a lot more affordable."

She said that, because of the lack of fat, venison was particularly filling, meaning a smaller portion was needed than with other meats. And instead of relying on fat for flavour, the meat itself tasted great.

"For me, the only point of pork is the fat and without that it's like eating cardboard," she said. "The thing about venison is it tastes great and it doesn't have the fat."

She believes the biggest misconception when it comes to venison is that it is complicated to cook.

"I have been working with venison for over 40 years," she said. "The biggest problem is that people are frightened of it.

"They sometimes encounter terribly complicated recipes. I try to show people just how easy it is and what a wonderful meat it is to cook simply."

She said that, as well as rich stews and curries, it can be simply fried like a steak, put in a salad, or made into a light dish perfect for summer.

John Fletcher, a specialist vet and deer farmer from Fife, hopes the initiative will encourage more people to try venison.

"As a biologist, ultimately the reason I would say it's good for us is because it's the meat we have been eating the longest, so we have adapted evolutionarily to eat it," he said.

However, he believes there is still a perception that it is a rare, expensive delicacy.

He thinks this is the result of a sharp decline in deer numbers in much of Europe at the end of the 18th century. Today, conservationists worry about increasing numbers of deer, which are breeding out of control.

VENISON STEAK SALAD WITH WATERCRESS AND POMEGRANATE

Starter for 4

Ingredients:

500g (1lb+) venison steak, or chunks of tender haunch

1 x 80g (3oz) bag watercress

1 pomegranate

Syrupy balsamic vinegar

Wash and dry the watercress. Tear it up and divide between the four plates. Cut the pomegranate into quarters and remove the seeds. Scatter seeds over the watercress. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar sparingly over the watercress.

If using steak, cook it rare and allow it to cool down for a minute or so. Slice into fine strips and drape these over the salad. For venison chunks, brown on all sides, then allow to rest before placing them over the salad.