Game

We all know the mantra that if you want to eat well and cheap, then eat seasonally. This is never truer than when we are talking about Game.

This is one of the reasons that late autumn is my favourite time of year - it's game season. Often seen as the food of 'posh folks' and foodies, game is misunderstood and underly used. Game actually has humble origins - it is the food of the hunter and the poacher.

Whenever I eat game, I feel an attachment to the food I eat and its part in the greater cycle of nature and life. Eating game feels right - it feels natural and at this time of year you can buy it really cheaply.
We tend to go a bit glutton on it and buy a whole load for the freezer to see us into the spring.
We are very fortunate that there are a lot of game retailers on our doorstep. A trip to the fishmongers this week saw me bringing home (literally) a carrier bag of it. Goose breast, wild duck breasts, Guinea fowl breasts, Venison, partridge, pheasant supremes and Wood pigeon breasts. Carrying home that weighty carrier bag made me feel all cave-woman and came in at around £30.00. For that we have several months of 'Friday night suppers.' When you compare this to what you might pay in a restaurant, £30.00 for a carrier bag full of meat is a relative bargain.

It was the hubby's birthday last week and we went to the 'famous' restaurant Rules up in big town. (A very special, indulgent treat - and definitely champagne budget. But such a blowout is few and far between since having the children) The roast partridge dish there was £26.00 a head (your sides were extra at £4.50 a pop). On Saturday we got our partridge for £2.99 each (or we could have had four birds for £10.00.) Suddenly the wallet seems a little more pained.

Amongst our friends we've found that they are definitely two camps. Those that haven't and don't want to try game and those that tried it once or twice and are no addicted to the stuff. There seems no middle ground when it comes to this. One of our friends has taken his love of game and the thrill of eating wild things to the furthest extreme - his most recent game experience being the eating of Puffin when he and his girlfriend visited Iceland last month. I asked him if it tasted of Chicken or Steak - he laughed and said "imagine a chicken that's eaten too much fish!'

Such is our love of Game (sea and land) that when we had an October wedding way back when, the wedding meal consisted of Crab terrine followed by Venison Pie. I'm not sure that all of our guests thanked us for that - but hey, it was our day.

So with all that game in the freezer, expect to see a lot of game recipes in the next few months on The Frugal Snob. If you haven't tried it before, start with Guinea Fowl - it tastes just how you think chicken aught to taste (how you're sure it tasted in the good old days). Treat it just like chicken and you'll thank me.

Enjoy and have a wonderful holiday season.