Oat and raisin biscuits
Deer Stalking In Dorset
Tuesday December 22nd 2009
When Leo, chef at the Institute of Physics thought about sourcing game for his winter menu, little did he realise that he would soon be out in the English countryside hunting it for himself! It all started when Leo was discussing various types of game with one of his customers at IOP who mentioned that he helped managed the deer population on a country estate in Dorset. Being a bold Zimbabwean, Leo spotted his chance and asked if he and a couple of other chefs could come down to lend a hand.
The date was set and Leo, Candice and Gary set off for Dorset on a Friday night. After a 4 hour journey with bumper to bumper traffic on the motorways they arrived at their hotel tired, thirsty and hungry, but a couple of pints and some good pub grub made everything better and they went to bed feeling excited about the day ahead.
Deer stalking takes place either at first or last light so our trainee hunters had an early start and were up and ready to go at 5.30. After a detailed safety talk, each chef went with a stalking expert and spent the morning learning how to follow trails, how to identify the different breeds and, of course, keeping an eye out for the elusive deer. Candice and her guide were the only successful party and back at base all three chefs were shown how to gut (or gralloch) the deer and prepare and check the carcass for market.
After a week of hanging, the deer carcass was brought to London and was the star turn at our game demonstration workshop run by our H&J butcher. At this workshop, our chefs learnt to prepare various different types of game, both feathered and furred, picking up skills such as plucking, skinning, gutting and jointing the meat into recognisable cuts for the kitchen. All agreed that it was a fascinating day and most were quite envious of Candice, Gary and Leo for their chance to really see where the meat had come from.
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