V is for Venison

Nearly 900 years ago, on the Feast Day of the Holy Cross, King David I of Scotland went hunting in the royal forest around Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Tsk, tsk, said the priests. Don't do it, sire. Well he did. Encountered a huge white stag which knocked him off his horse and was about to gore him. David put up his hands to defend himself and a golden cross appeared between the stag's antlers and it ran off. And that's how the Abbey of Holyrood came to be.

The relevance of this? It was the King's Park, and deer were the property of the monarch. A similar story in England. One of the reasons King John hated Robin Hood so much was because of his predilection for a venison stew. Killing a King's deer was akin to treason, and subject to the death penalty. Well that may

have eased, but deer stalking in search of a 14 pointer wasn't exactly for the masses. There are only two types of deer native to Scotland, roe deer and the massive Monarch of the Glen red. The image of venison was very much of a rich man's meat.

It took a long time for things to change. In 1973 John and Nichola Fletcher established the first deer farm, in Auchtermuchty in Fife. A great visitor attraction, but did the eating of venison boom? Not really, is the answer. Smaller farmed deer are regarded as cute, and most visitors and their children had memories of Walt Disney's Bambi. My recollection is that venison burgers started to become popular at country shows and the like, but in meat form it still wasn't common.

For some reason, the smaller Japanese native sika deer had been introduced into the country in the 1920s. Sika cover a much wider area of ground than fallow deer. In the wild, deer have no natural predators. The population has doubled since 1990. Scotland has a problem.

So instead of doing what came naturally and keeping strangers off their land, landowners and some farmers are now actively welcoming responsible shooters to keep numbers down. The approved shooting seasons vary according to the species, and some estates will prescribe their own; however, there will always be some type of deer which it is legal to shoot throughout the year. The owner of the land has to give permission and must be notified of any animal shot.

To defray expenses, many shooters look to sell the carcasses. My good friends Neil and Bernard at Castle Game Scotland tell me that's how they get most of their stock. (If you're wondering, co-founder Andy Smith has now retired.) In case you are shuddering at cruelty, it's businesses such as Castle Game which are raising standards. They're not interested unless there has been a clean kill where death is instant. The beast must have been cleaned immediately after death, and the carcasse moved with respect (no dragging, for example).

The result is fantastic, relatively inexpensive meat. There is virtually no fat. It's easy to cook; it's heallthy; and best of all it tastes wonderful. Neil and Bernard and their team will be happy to tell you more - but let them get Christmas out of the way, unless you've preordered.

More about cooking the stuff in Tom Cooks! on Friday.

Castle Game Scotland, Trinlaymire Farm, Linlithgow, West Lothian EH49 6NF

More details on their website