Roast Venison

Roast Venison

The popular concept of a medieval banquet where great haunches of spit roasted venison are served to richly dressed nobles sitting at long tables surrounded by dogs is fine as far as it goes. But nobody thinks of the glorious platefuls of fresh vegetables and steaming dishes of frumenty. People forget about the luscious gravy and the creamy sauces.

Venison is a wonderfully tasty meat but without accompaniments such as root vegetables and wheat based frumenty, it can be far too rich for most folk.

Medieval cooks were well aware that they needed to add variety to their meals and made sure that meat was always served with suitable side dishes.

Choosing and Tenderising Venison

Fresh wild Red deer should always be hung for at least a week and larding with pork fat or marinading for 24 hours is almost essential as it tends to be a very dry meat.

Wild Fallow deer often has a covering of fat and tends to hold its moisture when cooking.

The best of the three common breeds is undoubtedly young Wild Roe deer. The meat is lean and tasty. It simply requires frequent basting to cook to perfection.

The modern taste for tenderized meat means that farmed venison generally needs to be marinated before cooking especially if you choose one of the cheaper cuts.

Rolled venison can be delicious but it needs to be watched carefully as it should not be overcooked.

For truly tender venison we suggest a fillet of Roe (or a piece of fillet) that can be roasted whole then carved into portions and served on a bed of buttered and mashed roots with plenty of gravy. Delicious!

Marinating

Our favorite traditional marinade is a mixture of red wine, onion, rosemary, bay leaves and a couple of cloves of garlic to give it some body.

The meat should be placed in a pot, covered in marinade and then left overnight to absorb all the magnificent flavours.

We haven't found a good original recipe for this yet, but all the ingredients listed below are in keeping and we know that marinating was well known and popular with medieval cooks.

Having marinated the venison overnight it should be drained and dried before roasting and all the juices kept for gravy.

A piece of rolled venison can be tasty but needs careful watching (Right)

Basic Marinade – Ingredients

1 bottle of Burgundy or red wine
1 large peeled and finely chopped white onion
4 desertspoons of dark brown Muscovado sugar
2 tablespoons of 'extra virgin' olive oil
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
2 large finely chopped carrots
1 sprig of fresh Rosemary
1 sprig of fresh Thyme
1 sprig of Parsley
6 large bay leaves
6-10 whole peppercorns
3 large whole cloves of garlic (crushed)

Method

• Sweat the vegetables in the oil then pour in the Burgundy. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring slowly to the boil.

• Simmmer for twenty minutes and then leave to cool.

• When absolutely cold, place the venison in a pot and baste thoroughly with the marinade. Cover with tinfoil place in the bottom of a fridge and leave to marinate for as long as possible (2 days is good). Remember turn the meat before you go to bed and turn it again when you get up in the morning.

• When you are ready to cook remove the venison from the marinade and let it drip dry, saving the marinade to make gravy. Don't forget to strain it to remove surplus solids.

• Roast the venison until it matches your requirements. We tend to like it cooked medium rare.

• Make your gravy in the roasting pan using the meat juices and strained marinade to provide additional taste.

• Carve the venison and serve hot on a bed of mashed root vegetables with gravy.

Roast Venison, 5.8 out of 10 based on 5 ratings