Ingredient: Venison
Category: Game
Season: All
Venison is the culinary name for meat from the family Cervidae.
Deer meat, whether hunted or farmed, is termed venison.
Venison may be eaten as: steaks, roasts, sausages and ground meat.
It has a flavour similar to beef, but is much leaner and the fibres of the meat are short and tender.
Venison is lower in calories, cholesterol and fat than most cuts of beef, pork, or lamb.
Venison can in principle be Kosher as the animal meets the requirements laid down for Jewish people, and indeed is available in places such as Israel and New York.
However, kosher venison isn't available in the UK for an interesting reason: According to British law, deer must be killed in the open field and not bought to an abattoir.
However, the kosher rules require that an animal is killed with a single cut to the neck, and must be in perfect health before that, procluding them being shot in the field. In the early 20th century,
The venison available now is tender and fine flavoured, and can be used in most recipes that would call for beef.
This is because it is reared in natural herds that roam free in parklands, so it has the added bonus of being free of the emotive question of intensive or inhumane animal rearing. Because the herds are controlled and the venison are culled at the right time |