Game Birds
"At the sumptuous reception given by the city of Paris in 1549 to Catherine de' Medici the menu included : 30 peacocks, 33 pheasants, 21 swans, 9 cranes, 33 ducks, 33 ibises, 33 egrets, 33 young herons, 30 young goats, 99 young pigeons, 99 turtle doves, 13 partridges, 33 goslings, 3 young bustards, 13 young capons, 90 quails, 66 boiling chickens, 66 Indian chickens, 30 capons, 90 spring chickens in vinegar, 66 chickens 'cooked as grouse', and a great many other dishes."
The World Book of Poultry and game Dishes, Nina Froud - 1969
Game birds currently available from Graig Farm (although some may be seasonal):
Wild Duck
Wild ducks vary in size from less than 500g (approx 1 lb) to 4.5kg (10lbs). They roast particularly well, and are less fatty than domestic ducks. The most common wild duck is the mallard, which is related to the domestic duck. The mallard is typical of the 'dabbling' ducks in that it feeds on the surface of the water, and can spring up into the air with a powerful whirring of wings. Its broad, flattened bill is adapted for filtering from the water a wide range of tiny plant and animal matter. The main duck season is August to the end of January.
Mainly from the nearby wetlands north of Aberystwyth, our wild ducks are very tasty and make a good meal for two people (they weigh around 6-700g). Sold individually. After the end of the season they remain available, but are frozen.
Order Wild Duck Now
"The male of the wild duck is called a mallard; and the young ones are called flappers. When the flappers take wing they assume the name of wild ducks, and about the month of August repair to the corn-fields, where they remain until they are disturbed by the harvest people. They then frequent the rivers pretty early in the evening, and give excellent sport to those who have patience to wait for them. In order to know a wild duck, it is necessary only to look at the claws, which should be black."
Beeton's Book of Household Management, Isabella Beeton - 1861
Pheasant
Said to have been introduced into Britain by the Romans (along with dormice). Mrs. Beeton went as far as suggesting that the pheasant had been discovered by "the Argonauts on the banks of the Phasis, near Mount Ararat". In fact, its natural home is in Asia, from the Caucasus eastwards to China. Its eating qualities were appreciated by the British in the early Middle Ages, when birds from the Caucasus were introduced. By the end of the 16th century, they were common in Britain and from late in the following century birds from China, distinguished by their white neck-rings were brought in.
The bird is fairly large, about the size of a chicken (although less plump). They are prized for their ornamental as well as sporting and eating qualities, for their plumage is very attractive, particularly the cocks. The alarm or territorial call of the cock pheasant is an evocative sound in the countryside.
The shooting season for pheasant is the end of September to the end of January, although frozen birds are available after that.
Large estates have bred them for shooting, and some "wild" populations also exist.
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Whole pheasant | Pheasant breasts |
A whole bird will feed between 2 and 4 people, depending on the size of the bird and appetite of the people.
Breast fillets are also available, packed in 2's and 4's at approximately 100g per breast.
Order Whole Pheasants;
Order pheasant breasts (4)
Pheasant Breasts (2)
"Many thanks, my dear sir, for your kind present of game. .... If there is a pure and elevated pleasure in this world, it is that of roast pheasant and bread sauce; barn-door fowls for dissenters, but for the real churchman, the thirty-nine times articled clerk, the pheasant! the pheasant!"
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
Partridge
To many people, the partridge is superior in flavour to the pheasant. It is in season from the beginning of September to to the end of January. Like pheasant, it is a low fat, and low cholesterol meat.
There are two types, the indigenous Grey Partridge and The French or Red-Legged. The Grey is generally favoured for eating quality, although destruction of habitat through intensive farming has somewhat reduced its numbers. Britain's population of Grey Partridge has frequently been boosted in the past by imports from eastern Europe in particular; hence the alternative name for it as the Hungarian Partridge.
Partridge are smaller than pheasant (30-400g), and only really feed one person each. Like all game birds, they a delicious if simply roasted, or being small, can even be grilled.
Order partridge now
"At Brignolles, where we dined, I was obliged to quarrel with the landlady, and threaten to leave the house, before she would indulge us with any sort of flesh-meat. It was meagre day, and she had made her provisions accordingly. She even hinted at some dissatisfaction at having heretics in her house: but, as I was not disposed to eat stinking fish, with ragouts of eggs and onions, I insisted upon a leg of mutton, and a brace of fine partridges, which I found in the larder."
Tobias Smollett, Travels Through France and Italy - 1766
Wood Pigeon
From the Middle Ages on, many houses had dovecots, and pigeon or dove would be an important source of protein through the winter. In the eighteenth century, pigeon were very much a part of classic British cookery. To arable farmers they are a pest, particularly in the autumn when before harvest they can invade the corn field and inflict serious damage on the crop. In winter, huge flocks of Wood Pigeons feast upon root crops such as turnip, which are grown for animal feed, and clover, which is often under-sown with cereals to emerge after the corn harvest. Without the benefits of these modern farm crops, the birds would have to fall back on their more traditional foods of ivy berries, acorns and weed seeds.
Mrs Beeton describes 12 types of pigeon which are suitable for the table. She goes on to state that "Buffon enumerates over thirty varieties of the pigeon which he derives from one root - the stockdove or common wood pigeon."
Mrs Beeton - 1861
The pigeon is the smallest of the game birds, but are nevertheless very tasty. They are in season all the year round, and are available from Graig Farm as whole or breast fillets. Like most of our game birds, they are normally frozen.
"A pigeon tower frame of stone,
A fishpond dark and deep to see
To cast nets in when need there be
Which never yet was known to lack
A plenteous store of perch and jack."
Iola Goch
They can be grilled or roasted, but can also benefit from overnight marinating before cooking.
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whole pigeon (pack of 2) | pigeon breasts |
Order whole wood pigeons now;
order pigeon breasts
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