Venison & deer stalking – your views please

I do quite a lot of deer management / deer stalking and one of the side effects of the Covid issue is that there is significantly reduced demand for venison from hotels and restaurants and, subsequently, game dealers are either paying very little for carcasses or not taking them at all.

A lot of stalkers are looking at other options for selling on the venison – I’m now registered with my local authority as a primary producer to sell butchered venison direct to the public for example.

Note – this is not about the money (although it clearly plays a part for some of the big estates who need to cull a lot of deer). For me, this is about making sure there is a fully traceable route to market and creating demand for the end product.

I’d be really interested in your views on venison – have you tried it, did you like it, if not why not, what would influence you to buy it in future, would you know where to buy it, would you actively seek it out or is it an impulse buy, do you have an understanding of the process from field to plate? Those sort of general issues.

I appreciate that there will be folk who find the whole thing distasteful and don’t eat meat etc. I fully respect that view but I’d like to try and solicit the views of folk who eat other types of meat but not venison if possible.

Thanks in advance.

Well I live in NE Scotland so eating venison is considered pretty normal, in fact most of us up here consider deer to be a bit of a pest. It’s pretty freely available in butchers up here or if not there and then it can be ordered easily. No issues with eating it and will likely be having it for Christmas dinner this year if I get my way.

I love a bit of venison, actually one of my favourite meats, but don’t see it in the local butchers often enough. I suppose that’s easily solved by us asking for it, or visiting the butchers more often. Also apart from the butcher I’m not sure where else to buy it other than a speciality game dealer.
If there’s a venison steak on the menu I’ll always take that over beef if we’re eating out though.

I’m a fan of venison (and game in general). I’d eat more if I could easily source it locally. There are game dealers in soon of the villages round here but with work, etc. it can be a ballache to get to them when they’re open. If I could get easily it from more accessible local sources (in the village shop for example) that would be a great thing.

As a family we enjoy high quality venison sausages and meatballs from the local butcher. They aren’t always available though. Having a more reliable supply would be good. Sometimes we will get the shoulder cuts for a casserole. Never had the steaks though as not having cooked them before and the expense we always seem to be afraid we overcook them and turn to leather. Some brief cooking guidelines and recipe ideas on the packaging would be nice.(our butcher doesn’t eat venison and can’t provide help)  A source, ie which estate/glen the meat came from would be nice to know. No particular reason, just interesting.

Not quite your issues but I prefer venison to most meats for ethical reasons. Its proper free range and they generally graze land that is not fit for other useage – and there are too many of them so need to be culled in the absence of predators

I do not buy it for home consumption but will usually order it if on the menu in a restaurant
Beware tho – someone is making really poor quality venison burgers that appear on pub mnenus. totally inedible. I have no idea how they manage that

Current deer numbers are unsustainable. Developing the market for venison risks maintaining numbers and all the poor practices associated with some highland estates.
It’s nice if cooked well though.

Love game. But assuming it is shot, what with? I don’t eat things shot with lead any more.

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/lead-shot-game

We tend to buy it from the stalker at the local farmers market (can’t get more middle class than that 😀) along with other meats as available (hare, partridge etc). I notice that some of his stuff is starting to appear in local shops too. This is in NE Scotland though, so venison is pretty standard fare.

I’d be really interested in your views on venison – have you tried it, did you like it, if not why not, what would influence you to buy it in future, would you know where to buy it, would you actively seek it out or is it an impulse buy, do you have an understanding of the process from field to plate?

I love venison, I used to buy it a lot as the butcher near our house sold it, since we moved I dont as tbh as a 70-80% veggie I dont really visit butchers very often. There’s a local deer farm that sells but I dont fancy it seems wrong.

. Its proper free range and they generally graze land that is not fit for other useage

Sadly this isn’t necessarily true..been watching “This Farming Life” and one of the farms is farming venison.

Anyway, I like venison, tho rarely eat it, but can get it if I want it from local fishmonger/game dealer

Current deer numbers are unsustainable. Developing the market for venison risks maintaining numbers and all the poor practices associated with some highland estates.
It’s nice if cooked well though.

+1

I buy it, I like it.

However deer are part of the huge environmental imbalance in many areas of Scotland. If we could find a way of sustaining employment for 30 years, we could revolutionise where and how income from the land is made. The problem is no one has the 30 year answer.

Eat venison here, Enjoy it and cycle next to a deer farm on one of my local loops, it’s sold in one of the local farm shops, get it on some pub menus also.

We don’t eat it much but we’re doing less red meat as we are doing “sensible eating”

It’s something I order in a restaurant as a treat, I may have some steaks in the freezer though. Even when the price crashed a few years ago I never bothered buying it, my wife won’t try it so pointless buying it.

Local farm shop buyers here, regulary eat Venison. West Berks.

As per @lotto

Some brief cooking guidelines and recipe ideas on the packaging would be nice.

I, too, quite like it, and used to have it a bit as a kid in Canada as my uncle was a hunter. He would prepare every part of it.

The problem is, I hardly see it in butchers, and would be afraid of overdoing it and so wasting it.

Agree with TJ, if you’re going to eat meat it’s a good one. Haven’t done any stalking but imagine it to be an exhilerating day out. I’ve known of pheasants being bulldozed into the ground because of no demand, I hope you find a way of efficient distribution.

Have had it but not recently as it’s not easily available here (West Yorkshire). Would probably buy it if it was more readily available – particularly curious about a well made, tasty burger!

But assuming it is shot, what with?

Rifle using a steel/iron bullet as lead that size would need a bigger charge to cover the distance at the correct speed.

(I stress this is a best guess based on some old physics and basic fluid dynamics half forgotten from another life).

I had a venison steak last night and, as a joke to myself, my veggies were a vegan steak from Tesco. The vegan steak was disgusting, the venison delicious.

I decided to only eat meat that was from ‘wild animals we’ve got too many of”, so wild venison is about the only red meat I do eat. Pretty sure that’s not a scalable philosophy, especially at the amount of meat we seem to want to eat as a population, but for the moment I’m ok with the ethics of it.

I regularly eat venison. Again, I’m in the Scottish Highlands so it’s freely available.

I heard some of the local wild deer through the night on Saturday but we also have a deer farm a couple of miles away.

There are reindeer up on the mountain too but I don’t know if they ever sell the meat. I’ve had it in Sweden and it’s OK but not as rich as a nice bit of red deer.

I buy venison when I see it, occasionally as a special order eg Christmas (pretty sure this is farmed). Would be happy to see more of it.

I am a solid meat eater, have “non chicken, fish or pork” meat once a week either lamb, beef/veal or duck. However dont really like venison. Living in rural scotland most of my life its easy to get venison and I have tried various cuts but only once did i enjoy, and that was a leg done in an underground oven wild camping and I had drank a few beers…

Maybe its the cuts i have tried maybe the quality/cooking but I would choose almost any other meat over venison.

Weeksy

Local farm shop buyers here, regulary eat Venison. West Berks.

Have you tried Vicars in Ashamstead? Keep meaning to give it a go but only ever cycle past never drive that way.

I’ve known of pheasants being bulldozed into the ground because of no demand

Best thing to do with it!! 🤮🤮🤮

There’s a well established game dealer not far from me. In the wake of lockdown their hospitality market virtually all dried up, but his sales direct to the public did so well that he hired an extra person to man the counter/till. I was in at the weekend and they said the hospitality market was really picking up again.

TJ x3. Our local butchers is a licensed game dealer but can’t think of any time I’ve seen anything other than pre packaged. Plenty of butchers selling meat by post, no reason you couldn’t do venison meat packs, I’d have that!

@sanername don’t forget rabbit or even squirrel. The former is good, never had the latter though. Pigeon supposedly good too.

Rifle using a steel/iron bullet

That would kill the barrel in no time, you do get lead free alloy rounds and copper though

I used to get venison burgers from a game dealer in Northants and actually preferred them to haunch. So a much better use of the whole carcase if burgers are in demand. Anyone up there mounting the antlers for the wannabee squirarchy or the stalkers?

I don’t like venison but not really had much of it. I find it too strong for me. Love to see deer in the wild running free. I don’t think Joe public realise how overrun some areas are with them and good management keeps stock in check.
You need to try a street market if they are still going on.
I’m at the other end of the meat game shooting rabbits, but I don’t like them either so leave them where they drop for the scavengers.

Farm shops. farmers markets, local butchers and the local Waitrose all sell it round here (edge f the New Forest, which probably explains it).

Like others, I quite like it and eat it as a treat when out, but don’t buy it as I (possibly incorrectly) assume it’s harder to cook right and is too expensive to cook badly.

I love venison but don’t actually eat it much, purely due to limited availability. I think the single best piece of meat I have ever eaten was a Roe saddle cooked on the bone.

Love game. But assuming it is shot, what with? I don’t eat things shot with lead any more.

I would say a single projectile that exits the animal is not really an issue compared to a game bird that will usually have multiple pellets still in it. Having said that, lead free bullets are a thing – typically solid copper I believe.

Regards supermarket / cheap venison – be careful. It certainly used to be the case that stuff sold as “free range venison” could be random antelope-like species slaughter en-masses in Africa and flown over here. Look for country of origin and lookf for a single specified species (Roe/Fallow etc.)

D’you know, its just not something we eat. No idea why, I’ve had it maybe once or twice in my life in restaurants and thats it.

Why? No idea. I think stories of ruining it when cooking put me off, and perhaps it just not being something that is in the usual home cooking weekly repertoire.

If you were offer some nice cuts, some good burgers etc for sale on line – I’d give it a whirl

Have you tried Vicars in Ashamstead? Keep meaning to give it a go but only ever cycle past never drive that way.

3 times a week 🙂 It’s our go-to place and i think the only place we’ve bought meat in the last 5 years+

If you remmeber Crosshair from Zwift threads, he’s a gamekeeper who supplies them with Pheasant and deer etc too

Yes, I buy it and have done some deer stalking. The much maligned Muntjac makes the best tasting venison IMO. I always try to get wild rather than farmed venison. It seems madness to me to farm an animal that is so abundant in the wild, it is a pest in many areas. With 6 species of deer, 4 of which are introduced non-native species, deer numbers in the UK are the highest they have ever been since the last ice age.

Rifle using a steel/iron bullet as lead that size would need a bigger charge to cover the distance at the correct speed.

(I stress this is a best guess based on some old physics and basic fluid dynamics half forgotten from another life).

Lead is used for its greater cross sectional density which results in greater retained velocity and energy. A steel bullet (which would need to to be copper jacketed to avoid damaging the barrel) of the same size would lose velocity much more quickly and have less kinetic energy down range. There is also a legal requirement in the UK Deer acts to use expanding bullets for deer as they are more instantly lethal and humane. This requires a maleable, easily deformed bullet core with an exposed soft or hollow point. So the ideal deer stalking bullet is made of a dense, soft material. Some stalkers now use solid copper bullets because of concerns over the toxicity of lead, and shotgun cartridges used over wetlands use tin, bismuth, tungsten etc. Non of these materials are as ballistically efficient as lead, and some bring other problems.

(Based on a professional study of ballistics in a former life) 🙂

Love venison, but never buy it as MrsMC gets “Bambi Syndrome”.

Couple of butchers and farm shops locally have pre packaged or processed venison available, such as burgers.

Certainly seems to be more deer locally – between Ilkeston and Derby – or at least, they have been more visible since lockdown. Out riding this morning and deer fencing is being installed round a new woodland area they are about to create, which I haven’t seen round here before

Same as @weeksy. Same shop too, I’m guessing (And yes it will be Vicars @anagallis_arvensis – superb place)

Also, by the in-laws, the local estate culls each year, and sells theirs in the shop.

And there’s a very good restaurant near here that stalks, then cooks and sells the produce in various guises

Love it. Always get a whole carcass from friends on Exmoor. Seam butchery with it is amazing to do.

We also have a farm opposite where the guy manages deer. He sells it in lots of different forms, from steaks to pies and sausages.

I think promoting the benefits it has from land management wise to being healthier for you compared to beef. I think people who still want to eat meat but perhaps are a little conscious of limiting their impact upon the planet are the ones to target.

My view is love it but why the **** hasn’t the Britis government done the decent thing and banned lead shot yet?

I’m all over eating woodland animals but do the tories have a donor who’s a shooting pal who mines the lead used in 90% of british shot or something?

Other countries have phased it out but blighty? FFS. At leat we’re hopefully on a 5 year plan.

As for steel mincing the birds. Meh. We can live with that over more poison (19000 tonnes per year of lead shot poured onto europe)…

Living in Sweden and hunting deer (roe and fallow) I never buy venison but have a small personal supply each year. 😁 I can think to make selling easier I would agree with several of the points already made. If I was buying I’d like to know:
1) Geographic location (people like to buy local produce or at least know where it’s from).
2) Ammunition used and why (there are plenty of suitable copper jacketed/bonded bullets available now).
3) How is the carcass handled after the shot (hanging, maturing etc.)
4) Smaller cuts with recipe/cooking suggestions.
5) An online ordering system with collection available from local shops.
Good luck!

Out riding this morning and deer fencing is being installed round a new woodland area they are about to create, which I haven’t seen round here before

Depending where it is you can get a 100% government grant towards the fencing

I don’t think I’ve ever tried it, I would like to though.

I’m not very good at sourcing ‘odd’ meat. I wanted to make Curry Goat last year, gave up on that. Local Butcher looked at me like I was from Mars.