Mustard and Venison Great British Food Revival

-We're losing touch with our British food heritage.

-Ingredients are now under threat.

And teetering on the brink of survival.

By changing the way we shop and how we eat,

we have a chance

to breathe new life

into our delicious,

mouth-watering,

-succulent,

-fantastic,

home-grown produce.

Join our revival campaign

to help preserve our food legacy

for generations to come.

And put Britain firmly back on the food map.

That is proper lush!

I've pleaded with you in the past

about podding the humble British pea.

I've also got you buzzing about British honey.

But this time I've set myself a challenge that might get me

in a bit of a pickle.

In Shakespeare's time we made our own.

It became part of the British institution. Hoorah!

But more recently we've become a little bit complacent

and we just tend to stick to one particular variety.

My name's Ainsley Harriott and I want you to take

more of an eclectic approach to this king of condiments.

I want you to be able to discern your cider from your wholegrain,

your Tewkesbury from your tarragon.

As I introduce to you the brave new world of British mustard.

We spend £30 million a year on mustard,

but over 80% is on English,

American or French.

But there's a whole range of other British varieties

that we're not buying and they need our support.

So, in my campaign to convince you to buy British

I'll be having a ball making Tewkesbury mustard...

I'm glad I weren't born 200 years ago, I tell you.

What type of mustard would you like?

..taking my mustard manifesto to the streets...

That's hot and spicy.

That's what mustard gives you - a little bit of heat.

..and proving this spice is not solely for the Sunday roast.

It's not going to blow your head off.

It's a little bit subtle but, boy, does it deliver.

I don't think you ever forget your first mustard experience.

Mine was when I was a cub scout

and I went up to the summer festival and in the corner there was

an amazing hot dog stand selling these big long hot dogs.

All sorts of relishes were there and I thought, what's that yellow stuff?

I started piling it on. Look, look, just like that.

And the bloke behind the counter said, "Oi, steady on,

"it's mustard, not custard."

But it just didn't put me off.

To this day, I still love my mustard. I want that taste.

I yearn for that taste.

I sometimes take a little tube away with me when I go on holiday.

Sneak it in the old luggage!

Sales of foreign-style mustards are on the up which kind of baffles me

because we have a number of British varieties which are so much tastier.

What type of mustard do you buy, then?

-I like Dijon.

-You like a Dijon mustard.

-I do.

And so what about the good old British mustard, then?

My husband loves it. He has it but it's a bit strong for me.

-I buy Dijon.

-You buy Dijon mustard?

-Yes.

-So you like a little bit of French influence?

-Yes.

-Yes.

You go for Dijon. Is there a reason for that?

It's really nice on pork with breadcrumbs. In the oven.

Yeah, and in vinaigrettes.

OK. And what about you, ladies? Mustard? Do you?

-No mustard.

-We don't like it.

No? So have you ever tried it in your life?

I've tried it in a sandwich.

Well, it certainly looks like we're creatures of habit, doesn't it, eh?

Most of us just want to go out there

and buy a bit of Dijon mustard or English mustard

and slap it on your ham sandwich or your bit of roast beef.

Yet there's a whole variety of mustards out there,

British mustards, and I want to inspire you to get it

onto your plates and really make a difference.

In the Revival kitchen, I've got just the recipe to start you off

and I bet you never thought of using mustard in this teatime favourite.

Now, for my first recipe, I'm going to be using the good old classic

English mustard powder.

It really has got a lovely sort of pungent aroma.

Especially when you knock it down with that little bit of water or milk.

You get a fantastic taste. And this is going to be used

in my mustard, bacon and caramelised onion scones.

Get your plain flour straight in there.

A little touch of baking powder. You only need a pinch of it really.

Most people never think to use mustard in baking

but this recipe puts a savoury twist on an all-time classic.

A little pinch of salt in there.

And what about that mustard?

This has got so much flavour and it's so versatile.

As I'm about to show you.

We're going to get a heaped teaspoon of that. Sprinkle that in.

That will really maximise the flavour. Mmm.

Next, add your butter and rub in the flour and mustard powder.

This way of using mustard is actually quite tame.

If you go back in time, I suppose it wasn't

necessarily about adding it to food. Pop it on your body

if you had a cold or a head cold or something like that.

A little compress if you had a chesty cough.

And I'm sure it worked, actually. I think there was some truth in it.

Now, my scones won't cure your cold but they will cure your hunger.

Next, I beat some milk and eggs together

before chopping up some crispy bacon.

And that just works so beautifully.

When you talk about ham and mustard. Bacon and mustard.

Any of those sort of sliced cold meats with mustard

just works so well and in scones is absolutely perfect.

Right, a bit of the old caramelised onion here.

That will probably be enough there.

I know, yeah, you're probably thinking I'm using a jar.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it all.

It just obviously it saves time, you know.

Otherwise you've got to put it on the stove, cook it down very slowly,

put a bit of sugar on top.

It's very, very easy - grab a jar, pop it in there with your bacon

and that mustard

and all those different flavours work together beautifully.

I add the beaten egg and milk and mix together

to form a kind of softish dough

before flattening it out and dividing it into wedges.

Now, you can actually pop them in the oven just like this

and they'll be perfect.

But, oh no, I like to add a little bit more of an extra kick

and, for me, it has to be a little bit more mustard.

It's not going to blow your head off.

It's a little bit subtle but, boy, does it deliver.

To finish off, I glaze the scones with egg and milk

mixed with caramelised onion and mustard

and then they're into the oven

for about 15 minutes. And then you have it - freshly baked scones.

Now, what about serving them?

How about a lovely bit of cheese with a few pickles.

A little bit more chutney

if you like and I'll pop that gorgeous scone on the top.

I just can't resist it.

Mmm. That's just so good.

For any of you who bake,

whether you're making soda bread or hard dough bread

or even your own fresh bread, or indeed scones,

you know what it's like.

That smell when something comes out of the oven.

But with the mustard

and with the caramelised onion, it just gives it that extra lift.

A little knob of butter or, dare I say it, a bit of cheese.

Mustard heaven.

At one time British mustard made a daily appearance on our ancestors' plates

so why aren't we doing the same?

I've come to Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire to meet historian

'John Stobart, who knows all about the origin of spices in Britain.'

Now, John, you're the mustard expert.

How long has Britain had this wonderful affair with mustard?

The Romans brought mustard seeds with them

when they arrived in Britain in the early centuries AD

and they brought with them two different sorts of mustard seeds.

We have white mustard seeds and the black ones there.

-Are they very different in flavour?

-The black mustard seed is much stronger in flavour

so when you're grinding them up, you're getting a much fuller, richer flavour.

Who embraced it?

Who took it on and made it the mustard that we know today?

Monasteries were very important in terms of the cultivation.

-And we're here, aren't we?

-Here we are at Tewkesbury Abbey

where we can see the monks being very involved in producing and, indeed, consuming mustard.

-Yeah, and distributing. There was a mustardious or something.

-A mustardious, yes.

Someone who distributed mustard seeds.

It's fantastic, isn't it?

When did it go into production?

When did we become more familiar with it on a larger scale?

It was probably the early 18th century

when we start to see a really kind of national brand.

When a Mrs Clements devises a new method for milling mustard seeds

so you get a much finer flour

and a stronger, more regular kind of flavour.

We've had this love affair with mustard for over 2,000 years in this country

but do we use as much as we used to perhaps even 100 years ago?

I don't think we do.

I think it's something which we've kind of lost touch with.

We buy the jar, we put it in the cupboard and it just stays there.

We need to embrace and celebrate British mustard like our ancestors.

Over 300 years ago,

it was even the done thing to carry it in your pocket.

Tewkesbury mustard was the original fast food accompaniment.

So popular the Elizabethans took it with them everywhere.

And I've found someone who actually makes it.

I'm meeting Tewkesbury local Robin Ritchie,

who's agreed to teach me the age-old recipe.

What we're going to do today is make the medieval mustard ball

which is, strictly speaking, is what the Tewkesbury mustard was.

The first thing we do is to grate horseradish.

Shall I get on with that job?

'Horseradish is from the same plant family as mustard

'and was once prized for its medicinal properties.

'When grated, it releases potent vapours.'

I'm glad you've got that job.

Oh, I tell you what? It's like sucking a Fishermen's Friend, this.

You grate that and then we put it into the bowl there

and then we just cover it with a little bit of cider.

That is probably enough.

-And then we transfer this into the bowl, do we?

-Yep.

The grated horseradish steeps in cider for up to 24 hours

but for a more potent brew, Robin recommends steeping it for longer.

What's the maximum time you can leave it in there for, Robin?

Probably two years.

We ain't got two years, Robin!

What are you like? There's one we've already made.

We made earlier.

-Two years ago, this was.

-Yeah, OK.

-A vintage.

What shall we do next?

The next stage is grinding the mustard.

OK. All of these mustard seeds.

'And what does an Elizabethan chef need for grinding mustard seeds?'

There you have a cannonball.

-That goes in here obviously and...

-And roll it.

..that process starts.

So how long do you have to do this for?

Probably 30 minutes.

-You don't mind if I change hands, do you?

-No.

I'm glad I weren't born 200 years ago, I tell you.

Look, the powder's coming. I see powder!

Look at that. That's wonderful.

That's getting really powdery now.

Next, the crushed seed is sieved to remove the husks

before being mixed with the horseradish and the cider essence.

Wonderful smell there.

Then we form a dough which can be rolled into the famous

Tewkesbury mustard ball.

So, why do we make them into balls, then?

It was certainly traditional but it made it ideal for

putting into your pocket, go to an ale house, slice off what you need.

Add a little bit of the drink you're drinking

-and you've got your mustard.

-And does it ever go off, then?

No. I've had it for years.

-It will have lost some of its potency.

-Oomph.

-Yeah. But it was still tasty.

-I'm looking forward to trying this, then.

-You need to add cider to that.

-Yeah.

-To turn it into a paste.

-OK.

-In a little dish or just on the side of the plate?

-Just on the side.

Just mash that together,

smear a bit of the old mustard

and...pop that in.

Mmm, really delicious.

You put it in and straightaway you're getting that lovely taste that comes.

The horseradish is very, very prevalent, isn't it? Oh.

There you go. You can actually make this at home yourself.

You saw how easy it is.

All you need is a cannonball and a...

Or a pestle and mortar, you know that.

Grind it down. Have a go. It really is simply quite delicious.

Robin is keeping the spirit of Tewkesbury mustard alive

and it's vital we support producers like him.

So I've got a scrumptiously tasty recipe using wholegrain mustard,

or Tewkesbury, which will make you rush out to buy some.

This is really something quite special.

So, let me show you how to prepare my mustard and thyme crusted rib eye of beef.

This is actually a spicy take on a family favourite -

the good old British Sunday roast.

For a start you want to marinate a joint of beef in red wine vinegar,

bay leaf and thyme.

It's going to be in there for at least four hours, please,

and if you're going to be leaving it overnight

and perhaps two days, like I do,

then you can just turn it over every 12 hours or something.

Just go in there and turn over the meat and it will just soak up.

It's like a sponge, it really is.

After marinating,

the beef is ready for my fantastic mustard and thyme crust,

which is where my Tewkesbury mustard ball comes in handy.

Now what about this? Hey. Remember that? All that energy.

How time consuming it was.

Standing there with my cannonball rolling around those mustard seeds.

Well, this is what I've got. I'm going to use a little bit of this.

Break off a little bit of that.

And I'm going to pop that into a dish

and I'm going to knock that down with a little bit of beer.

Just like they did all those years ago.

Remember, this is one of the oldest forms of mustard here.

The Tewkesbury mustard.

And sort of squash that down.

Just you create a little bit of a paste

which I'm then going to

rub all over my beef.

If you can't find Tewkesbury mustard,

try English or wholegrain mustard, but make sure you use plenty of it.

So it holds the crushed black pepper and thyme crust together nicely.

We take our Tewkesbury mustard

and spread that all over our beef.

That's going to be kind of the glue, if you like, so that when we put

our lovely peppercorns on top, or our crust on top,

it will stick to it.

Perfect.

Really give that a good old rub and then we're going to roll that

in there so you get a lovely, lovely crust on there.

Just look at that. Can you see what I mean?

You've got that beautiful crust.

Make sure you use up all those peppercorns

and that is absolutely lovely.

The beef then goes in the oven

and cooks for about an hour and 20 minutes

which will keep it nice and pink in the middle.

That gives me time to make a quick creme fraiche accompaniment.

A bit of creme fraiche in there with the Tewkesbury mustard

and I've also got here horseradish, and quite a bit of it.

I'm talking about a good three or four tablespoons of horseradish

mixed into your creme fraiche.

You see you're getting that lovely balance.

You've got the crusted mustard on top there of your beef

plus you've got it all happening in here so you get that double hit.

Don't forget a few chives.

There you have it. How simple was that, eh?

Now, this sauce also goes superbly well with fish

but I have to confess I love it with a few roasted vegetables

and dolloped on my mustard and thyme-crusted beef.

Let's get in here now.

Cut that down there. Perfect.

Take a slice of that.

Nestle that on there like that.

I'm going to serve that with a good dollop of that.

Wow. I think that's absolutely wonderful.

A mustard experience you'll never forget, eh?

Makes Sundays that much more exciting.

A lot of mustard that's made in Britain actually uses

imported mustard seed but I'm off to meet a supplier who actively

sources mustard seed that's grown right here in the Cotswolds.

-Hello, Guy, how are you?

-Very well, thanks.

Guy Tullberg's father began making mustard 40 years ago.

His passion spawned a family business selling chutneys,

pickles and mustards around the world,

using home grown produce, one of which is mustard seed.

This is our English-grown seed.

This is grown for us three miles down the road.

Same farmer. We're about year 10 now of this

and the crop is getting bigger and bigger every year.

So, at the moment we're only getting the yellow seed from the UK

because most of the brown seed is all comes from North America.

As does our brown seed as well

but we'd love to have somebody grow brown seed for us as well.

-So, if the Brits get behind it we could change that?

-Yeah. Really.

It's all about getting people to buy mustards, use mustards

and enjoy mustards.

The mustard seed is fed through the mill by hand

together with whole spices to produce a fine powder.

This is then mixed with vinegar

to make that familiar grainy wet paste that we so love.

LOUD GRINDING

Already you can see

that it's beginning to get a little bit powdery.

All the smells, all the flavours are coming through.

Tracklements produces ten different mustards

but I want to add one more to their repertoire.

My very own Great British Food Revival mustard.

So, this is the mustard we ground.

-What we need to do is put that into the bucket here.

-OK.

Half fill that with the cider

and then we'll top that up with cider vinegar and that can go in.

There you go

and there's no reason why everyone can't make this at home.

It's easy enough to do.

What do you think we might like to put in?

I know that we've already got the chillies in there.

-That is potent as you like, isn't it?

-Yeah, that's a lovely and fresh chopped chilli.

So just one of those.

And I think a couple of those, because I'm a bit of a honey fan.

Already you notice that the liquid that we put in earlier on,

the powder and everything has already started to soak it all up.

-Yes.

-It's gradually beginning to come.

'But how does it taste?'

I'm getting the sweetness of the honey. We've definitely got that.

Straightaway. That's coming through.

Also got the pepperiness there but it kind of neutralises it just a little bit.

It takes off that edge so you don't, argh!

But that'll get rounder, you've got the heat.

That'll get rounder and rounder, the flavour.

Well, there you have it.

This is my Great British Food Revival mustard.

But, more importantly, I want to get out there and get people to try it.

I think I've got just the plan.

Corsham is a historic market town in the Cotswolds

and it's the perfect place to launch my mustard revival campaign.

And I'm going to set it off with a bit of a bang.

What's the perfect food to go with mustard?

It has to be the Great British banger, and what a selection

of mustard I've got and a fabulous selection of sausages too.

No ordinary sausage. Malmesbury award-winning sausages.

-Looking good, chef?

-Yeah, looking good.

Fantastic. Just look at this mustard that I've got here.

I want everybody here. All the people to try.

We've got a fantastic tarragon mustard.

My Great British Food Revival mustard there.

That's absolutely delicious. Along with Tewkesbury mustard.

We've also got the wholegrain mustard,

the honey mustard and finally the good old classic English.

I'm going to get the local people here to try it

to find out exactly what they think.

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of Corsham.

Please come forward and try our award-winning sausages

and mustard and let me know what you think.

'So, come on, you lot,

'we've got to keep British mustard in favour for the sake of future generations.

'I'm hoping my giveaways will entice younger people away from ketchup

'and relishes and fire them up to buy British mustard!'

OK, one at a time. Come up. Let's get going.

What mustard would you like to go for, sir?

Er, the honey one, please.

The honey, honey mustard. Oh, look at that. Beautiful.

Have a little bite of that and tell us what do you think.

-That's nice.

-Yeah?

-Would you consider making something like that?

-No, I'll just get you to make it.

Hello, young man. How are you doing?

-What type of mustard would you like then?

-Er, honey.

A little honey mustard. Just a little bit.

-Have you ever had mustard before?

-I don't know.

You don't know. All right then. Ooh. What do you think?

Do I get the thumbs up?

Yeah. All right then. We get the thumbs up there.

'Ooh, two down and I've already got one young convert.'

Go on, have a bite, tell us what you think.

-Is that spicy?

-Yeah.

-Is that good?

-Mm-hmm.

-Yeah, OK.

What can I interest you in? You can see there. Tarragon,

Great British Food Revival mustard. Personally made by myself.

-Do you recommend it?

-All the time.

-Then I'll have some of that.

-Yeah.

-Thank you indeed, very much.

-Is that enough?

Have a bite, tell us what do you think.

Mmm. Yummy. I'll have a second one in a minute.

Tewkesbury mustard.

Have a bite and tell us what you think.

Oh, you're going to have a little bit of a lick.

-That's hot and spicy.

-Does that deliver?

Fab. Thank you very much.

Absolutely. There you go. Sometimes you like it hot and spicy.

-Ooh, that is nice. That is nice.

-Yeah?

My mustards are hitting the spot

and, after only half an hour, I've got them eating out of my hand.

How about that? Is that good?

Tewkesbury. Tell us what you think.

It's quite vinegary in a way.

-Yeah.

-It's really good.

-It's got a bit of a kick to it.

-It's hot.

-Is it? Is it hot?

Well, that's what mustard gives you. A little bit of heat.

Mmm. Really good.

Is that the business?

Yeah. That was a good one. Top one.

It's been great watching all these people spice up their bangers

with a dollop of good old British mustard and, I tell you what,

if that hasn't inspired you, my name's not Ainsley.

I'm almost at the end of my meander through the fantastic world

of mustard but I've got one final dish to galvanise you into action.

It uses the classic British wholegrain mustard

and it's dead easy to make.

So I want to share with you one of my favourite recipes.

Its potato tart with mustard, leeks and mushrooms.

Now, you probably raised your eyebrows when I said potato tart.

Potato tart? Well, I don't know.

For me, it's one of those kind of dishes towards the end of the week,

there's not much in the fridge and you're thinking, what can I do?

Leeks and mushrooms, I always seem to have hanging around

but what about a bit of mashed potato.

That quantity there, which is about 4oz/100g, you normally throw away.

Don't do it. Keep hold of that.

A nice bit of butter and then we can stat to make our pastry.

My kids love this potato tart as it has a mild mustard taste

so it's perfect for the whole family.

I begin by sieving some flour and powdered mustard

which I mix with the butter and the mashed potato to form a nice soft dough.

And this is what I mean about allowing mustard

to be introduced to lots of different things.

What about pastry? What about biscuits?

What about chocolate cakes or gingerbread?

I always put a minute amount to my gingerbread mix and it adds to it.

Anyway, I'm just going to take a little bit of cling film here.

Wrap that up and pop that in the fridge for,

if you can, an hour or so, even overnight.

It really is absolutely fine.

Next, I sauteed some leeks and mushrooms.

Now, once the mushrooms and the leaks have cooled down then you can

start getting some really lovely flavours in there.

I've got here some mascarpone.

And now that wonderful flavours of flavours.

The old wholegrain mustard. Straight in there.

Get a spoonful of that. That's it.

Then we can just blend that together.

And while the mustard works its magic,

take your pastry out of the fridge.

Here's a top tip. Roll it straight onto a floured baking tray,

pinch the edges and, voila, there's your base.

Right, take our leeks and mushrooms now.

Pop that on the top there and spread it out.

You can see that and just use the back of the spoon there.

Spread that out.

Like that.

Perfect.

Very nice indeed.

And to finish off I crumble some blue cheese on top

and, last but not least, a little bit of Caribbean spice.

I think my dad would be proud of me.

-IN JAMAICAN ACCENT:

-A lickle bit of chilli sprinkle pon thee top!

That's it. Not too much. Just a pinch.

And all we have to do is pop that into the oven

200 degrees centigrade, gas mark six, for about 25 to 30 minutes.

And are you in for a treat? You're about to find out.

There you have it.

My potato tart with mustard, leek and mushrooms.

A perfect family supper using ingredients most of us

already have in the fridge.

It's the texture that really does reward you.

The pastry is not like such crumbly pastry with a crispy, crunchy base.

It's a lot shorter than that and of course you've got

the explosion of the mustard seed that comes alive in your mouth

and we've got the mustard powder in the base, too,

so it's all there for you.

Mmm. It's a bit rude, really, but I can't help it.

This has been an amazing adventure for me,

meeting so many people as fired up about British mustard as I am.

These artisan suppliers really do need our help

and now it's over to you guys.

Now, when it comes to British mustards you can see there is

just so much variety here. I want you guys to expand your mind.

Don't just buy a simple jar and just pop it in your fridge

or cupboards for months on end and forget about it.

It will eventually go off

and you're losing that really sophisticated taste

that you can capture with any of these wonderful mustards.

So come on together.

Let's expand our mind as far as mustard is concerned.

There really is so much variety and it's going to bring your food alive.

Let it sing.

Stay with us as Valentine Warner takes on the challenge to

revive a much ignored British heritage product.

Sometimes I'm frustrated by the public's perception

of this particular produce.

Some people think it's cruel and wrong to eat it.

While others simply dismiss it as not for them at all.

But why is that? This is a wild meat.

Delicious and versatile with a history as rich as its taste.

I'm Valentine Warner and I'd like to try and convince you to try venison.

In my campaign to revive Great British venison

I want to persuade you that culling wild deer is necessary.

We've got one. Some delicious venison.

I'm helping some squeamish school children

get over their fear of cooking and eating Bambi.

Today, I ended up cutting off its head.

-You cut its head off?

-Yeah.

And hopefully I'll convince you to give this delicious meat a go

with my mouthwatering venison burger.

Oh, that just smells sublime.

I first tried venison in my early teens

and fell in love with it from the very first bite.

I now cook with it a lot.

There's so much that can be done with it in the kitchen.

It can produce so many varied and delicious dishes.

But what I don't understand is, with such a readily available

and sustainable source of meat, why we're nervous of it.

Why we approach it any more differently than the everyday meats that we're used to.

-Do you know what venison is?

-No.

I always think of it being something,

like it's a bit gamey and a bit rich and I don't know.

Like belongs in a Tudor banquet. I don't know!

The perception I get is it's probably eaten

by the Prince Of Wales and his royal circle.

Many of you view venison as a rich man's food,

hunted and eaten by the upper classes.

Well, it certainly used to be

and it's easy to see why we still think this way

when our most visible deer still live in deer parks like this one.

I'm at historic Burghley House which has a long association with fallow deer.

I've come to visit Miranda Rock, whose family

has lived in this extraordinary house since the times of Elizabeth I.

Back then, hunting was the favourite sport

and every self-respecting estate

had to have a deer park in case important guests dropped in.

Looking at all the ferocious faces staring down at me,

do you think that many of these people enjoyed a good plate of venison

-and looked a bit more cheery when they finished it?

-I think he would have done. That's Henry VIII.

-I think he had a lot of venison.

-He had an appetite.

Deer were first introduced to Burghley in the late 16th century

and the herd has been an important part of the landscape ever since,

as seen in this rare 18th-century picture.

What have we got here?

We've got a lovely drawing of the park at Burghley

before Capability Brown made the changes here.

-So we're kind of over here.

-Exactly.

And is that Great Uncle Bob?

-Up a tree.

-Up a tree.

It's a bit of a dead cert, isn't it, this poor stag?

He looks like he's missed all of them, actually.

Yes. The others are running away.

That really does kind of give a very clear idea of kind of what might have been going on.

And venison would have featured regularly on the menu,

cooked up for hungry hunting parties in this magnificent Tudor kitchen.

-There we are. The Tudor kitchen.

-Oh my goodness me. Wowee.

What I wouldn't give to come back in time

and just this bustling kitchen with hierarchy,

and everyone doing a job, and urgency and fat and smoke and...

Oh, fabulous. The noise and the smell and, yeah, everything.

Well, maybe we should make a plan to do a dinner one day

that honours the deer and get everything fired up

and come and do ten deer dishes. A deer tasting menu.

-It would be fun, wouldn't it?

-A hoof and tongue evening.

-I'll skip the hoof.

-OK.

The deer at Burghley are no longer hunted for sport

but limited space makes it necessary to manage their numbers every once in a while

and the venison is fed back into the food chain

via local markets, restaurants and butchers.

You don't have to be landed gentry to enjoy this delicious meat.

In fact, anyone can buy it and cook it at home

and I've got a quick and simple recipe to inspire you.

I've got three delicious wild venison recipes

that I really hope will encourage you to enjoy this meat

and prove to you it's not just a delicacy for kings and aristocracy.

My first recipe is going to be venison salad.

Something I think is worth noting is that when we talk about venison

we always seem to talk about it in terms of winter.

Stews and pies and heavy things.

We've got six species of deer scampering around in the wilds of the UK

and they all have different seasons

and the females and males have different seasons

so there is always a kind of venison in season and that's why I want

to make a salad to show you it can be a light, enjoyable thing,

rather than something heavy under pastry

or served on top of mashed potato.

For this recipe I'm using roe deer, which is in season from April

to the end of October.

This is the strip loin.

It's this muscle that goes down the back here

and on it the silvery stuff is sinew, and I want to cut that off

because, if I don't, as it cooks the meat will constrict

and it won't be quite as tender and toothsome as it should be.

The first time I ever kind of really thought about venison, I was in a restaurant with my dad

and I was kind of going through things with him

and I said, "What's venison?"

And he said, "That's deer," and I remember being very, very excited.

I couldn't wait.

It was going to be, you know, I'm actually eating a deer

and I've enjoyed it ever since.

This just needs to be seared quickly in a hot pan.

It doesn't take long to cook so I really would say stay with it.

Love it and look after it.

I think my father told me of the story of Herne The Hunter.

He's a very kind of ingrained in British folklore

and he's the guardian of the woods

and he has the body of a man and the head of a stag

and he used to scare the living bejesus out of me.

And we used to go on quite a lot of walks after lunch and I could never walk at the back.

I always had to trot round to the front

because I thought Herne The Hunter's hairy hand would come out

and snatch me into a hedge and that would be it.

I was terrified of him.

Still am a bit, actually.

Once it's cooked, leave it to rest, like you would any meat,

and make the dressing.

This is my savoury brown sauce which I'm going to make in the pan

that we fried the venison in to get every little bit of taste we can.

Five anchovies.

There's a long history of cooking anchovies with meat.

They lend a wonderful kind of savoury saltiness.

The fishiness goes when you cook them

and that's why I'm including them with the venison.

Along with mustard, sugar, pickled walnut juice and Worcester sauce.

Roe deer really is one of my favourites.

It's a great kind of venison to start on if you're a bit nervous.

It's not one of the big heavy deer

that I associate with something more manly on a plate.

It's a gentle, light, fleet-footed thing

and that's why it's going in a salad.

Dressing done. It's time for the salad.

I like to use radishes, beetroots and their tops, and pea shoots.

So how simple was that? I've seared some meat.

I've very quickly reduced a little dressing and dressed a few leaves.

Simple stuff. So now it's just really about assembling it.

Look at that. Delicious.

I would defy anyone to tell me that they didn't like that.

So here I have a light, delicious venison salad

that I hope you'll enjoy.

Easy stuff.

That is really delicious.

There's lots of wonderful things in there that don't clash.

You can taste them all in their own right

and the wonderful thing they do together.

But the venison itself, it does have that element of beef

but a meat whose magic comes through feeding in the wild.

That's delicious.

We have a problem with wild deer in this country.

In fact, our deer population is almost out of control.

In the UK there's an estimated

two million deer living in the wild.

The highest the population has been for a long time

and I've come meet Carl Ivans of the Forestry Commission to see

how we're dealing with these numbers.

I'm in Willingham Woods in North Lincolnshire,

an area of stunning natural beauty

but also a perfect habitat for wild deer.

'Carl has been managing the deer population for 24 years

'and he's going to show me

'what devastating effects it's having on our countryside.'

So, Carl, there's droppings everywhere. What are those?

That's roe deer.

Um, you can see we've actually got a path that pretty much follows through here.

You can see a kind of tunnel really.

The trees either side.

These Douglas fir have been hammered either side.

You can see the tips have been actually nipped off.

It's been happening in the past, as well.

You can see how it's been knocked back and knocked back.

So they're really stunting the trees. Not allowing them to grow.

That's right, yeah.

'This isn't just a local problem as deer effect nature's delicate balance countrywide.

'Rangers have to cull our wild deer as humanely as possible

'to prevent further damage.'

-When you start looking there's a lot of dead trees here.

-Oh, yeah.

If people like Carl don't keep deer numbers down,

we risk losing more of our precious woodlands in the future.

Carl, how could you offer a fair argument to those who might say its cruel?

Um, well, people must realise that there's no natural predators

to deer in this country.

Also, it's no benefit to the deer with numbers increasing.

We're finding where there are a lot of deer,

you've got problems with their health.

Also, their weights go down

and the last thing we want to see is deer dying of disease.

We're basically just trying to get a healthy balance of everything

and the deer will benefit

and the countryside will benefit as well with decent management.

So how do rangers cull our wild deer?

More often than not it's by stalking, which require a rifle license.

I started stalking when I was around 20.

Carl invites me along the next morning to see how the professionals do it

from high seats like this one.

The reason we use high seats, you've got a good stable rest.

You're sitting waiting for the deer to move out

and also because you're shooting down into the ground,

you've got a safe back stop.

And this high vantage point allows stalkers to make a clean shot,

ensuring minimal suffering.

Well, the most important thing is you have a humane kill.

A quick, clean death which, you know, the high seat here gives us

the best option for that.

Now it's a waiting game

until, finally, a large roebuck appears.

A deer just crossed about 150 yards down.

We've got one. Some delicious venison.

Responsible culling initiatives like this one

exist up and down the country, helping to maintain a healthy

and sustainable deer population.

But they're also providing us with plenty of delicious free range meat.

So what exactly happens to all our wild venison?

The deer culled by members of the Lincolnshire Deer Group

end up at the Lincoln Wild Venison larder.

A local cooperative.

It employs the same high standards of hygiene

and traceability that we expect from other meats.

So, I think this is, actually, you had the same meat practices here

that you'd find

in supermarkets almost.

-Everything is accounted for.

-Absolutely.

This could make people feel more at ease in trying something

that they were maybe nervous about.

Yeah, I think the deer management community has upped their game

considerably in the last 20 years.

This is typical now of how wild deer are handled across the country.

So, yeah, I mean, the public can be sure their venison,

their meat, has been handled properly.

All the deer here are hung for around a week

to develop their flavour.

Derek the butcher is going to show me

just how much meat this noble beast can provide.

An adult roe deer like the one I shot this morning

has eight to ten different cuts.

The most sought after being the strip loin and fillets.

Look at that.

I'm tempted to eat that raw with just a little

sprinkling of salt on it.

Nothing on this animal goes to waste.

You can even use the bones to make the most delicious stock.

-That's the topside.

-Yep. How would you cook those?

-You could griddle them.

-Garlic butter?

Yes, that would be lovely.

Gosh, look, this is... I'm just feeling hungrier and hungrier.

There's an absolute feast lying on this table.

Some of it's about slow cooking. Some of it's about fast cooking.

The liver, well, that just says breakfast to me

because it's a real wow start to the day.

We've got the legs here. We've got the silverside.

We've got the topside and we've got the thick flank here.

They can be chopped up into steaks like this

and then flash fried, maybe with some parsley

and garlic butter or something wonderful like that.

Then, you know, maybe don't have that lamb roast.

Have a haunch roast, and the roe deer haunch is a delicious thing.

I like to kind of paste it in lots of garlic and lemon zest

and anchovies and black olives.

That is a really fantastic lunch. In fact, downright delicious.

So we've seen how much potential there is on a venison carcass.

So many different things that can be cooked.

We have to control these animals

but they're delicious too, so they should be eaten and enjoyed.

So my next recipe is going to be a fallow deer chop with juniper sauce.

Fallow deer exist in the wild, and they're also farmed.

Now, the problem is for me that,

although there is some very responsible and good venison farmers,

we have so many deer running around in the wild,

that we've established that they're having a negative effect on the environment,

then it seems crazy to be eating farmed venison

when we could be enjoying wild venison.

So, inside this pot I've got some shallots.

Well, I've got one large shallot. I've got two cloves of garlic.

I'm going to put in about ten juniper berries.

If you give them a bit of a hand.

Just crush them with the back of a blade.

Or bash them in your pestle and mortar.

It just helps encourage that flavour to come out of them.

So in they go.

Now for some white wine

and white wine vinegar which is going to form the base of my sauce.

So, that's reducing. In the meantime I'm going to make a roux.

With my family there is always a cry of never enough sauce.

Particularly my brother.

He's always outraged that there's never enough sauce

so, with those words in mind, I'm going to make quite a lot of sauce.

Right, I've got about two tablespoons of my reduction left in there

so in that goes.

I want to get everything out so really give it a good press.

Then get it back on the heat to thicken up.

Add some stock and prepare your meat.

Now, what I want to do here is, I like the fat on meat.

My fork is constantly appearing hovering over other people's plates

when they leave it on the side. So I like a crispy bit of fat.

If you make a few slits in it just to help the fat run out.

As we saw with the Lincolnshire Deer Group, they're really trying

to get venison out there so it can come to your table.

Also the whole practice of producing, dealing with it,

butchering it, it's very closely audited.

It's very, very hygienic as you would expect with any farmed

or commercial meat.

Pretty much every deer that goes out there can be traced back to

the very field it was taken from.

Oh that's looking good and it's smelling delicious.

And into the oven it goes for really little more than five or six minutes.

But test it. Prod it. Get a feeling for it.

I'm going to finish the sauce with a little bit of cream.

Of the six deer, the strongest one and actually the one I care for least

is the red deer and then you've got the next big boys.

You've got the fallow and the sika deer.

The chop from the fallow is one of my favourite cuts of all

and it's just pleasing.

It's very tasty meat. Again with no kind of edge to it.

Right, so, there's the chop done.

Let's get that out of the pan

because I don't want it to cook anymore.

And that's it.

It really is no more complicated than cooking a steak.

Be adventurous.

Try wild venison. Ask your butcher for it.

There's some fantastic places online to get hold of it.

This meat is there to be eaten. We have tonnes of it.

Ultimately, it's really delicious so enjoy it.

That is a delicious plate of food. Wild venison.

Get out there and get yourself some.

I'm not going to hold back.

That's a very delicious piece of meat and, if you like beef,

you're going to love this.

If you like lamb, you're going to love this.

If you want to give something new a try, you're going to love this.

That is a splendid piece of meat.

Champion.

I want to bring wild venison to our towns and cities.

In 2009, we spent £2 billion on chicken

but just £43 million on venison

so how do we stir up demand for this ethical, sustainable meat?

By encouraging people to try it which is exactly what the pupils

at a school in Nottingham are being encouraged to do.

Today, they're having a lesson in deer butchery.

Learning that deer culling is a necessary evil

that results in the most delicious, nutritious meat.

It's part of the Fair Game Initiative,

an educational project spearheaded by Dr Naomi Sykes

from the University Of Nottingham.

Like me, she's keen to see wild venison back on our plates.

Well, today, we brought in a whole deer. A fallow deer.

-Legs. Antlers. Tongue.

-Yeah, the whole lot.

-Tail. Altogether.

-Absolutely everything.

-Yeah.

And brought it in for the children so that they could have a go

experiencing what it's like to actually butcher a deer.

Skin it and see the whole process through to actually cooking

and consumption of the animal.

They must have been riveted and then to cook it too.

It was interesting. At the beginning,

they were all fairly squeamish as I think most people would be

but they really got into it

and they could understand the context of why we were doing this.

Why do you think this is important?

What we're trying to do here

by bringing venison into this particular school is try to democratise it and to make people

realise this is not a food just for the elite, just for the rich.

It is something that's actually very cheap if you get it at source

and it's something that everybody can enjoy

and I don't think that you can get more free range than deer.

Stage Two - a lesson on how to cook this lean and tender meat

and a quick taste before they put their new skills to the test.

Then it's time to hit the stoves

and whip up a dish for their parents to try later.

So what do the pupils think of our wild venison?

Are you getting them nice and brown on the outside?

Did you know what venison was before?

No.

And how do you feel when you know it's a deer?

Strange. Because I don't usually eat deer.

Do you think it's important to know the whole stage of how everything happens?

You've seen the whole animal and now here's your meat. Do you think that's important?

Yeah, because, like, when you normally buy the food from the shop

you don't think what happened to it.

You just cook it and eat it. But now you've seen

what happens to it and everything it makes you think about what happens to other animals.

You should work for the British Venison Board, I think.

-Which one's yours?

-This one.

-That looks very delicious.

I'm really thrilled by what I've heard. I walked into this room

and I really thought there was going to be some quite upset children,

others with their arms crossed. But I'm really encouraged.

They've all guzzled it. They love it. It's fantastic.

But the ultimate test is yet to come. Their parents.

After all, they'll be the ones buying it.

So how will they react to eating deer?

-Very nice.

-Very nice?

Mmm. Very good. And you did this all yourself, did you?

-Have you eaten venison before?

-No. It's really nice.

-I like it.

-When you knew what it was were you a bit apprehensive of trying it?

No, I've seen them on Wollaton Park.

Yeah. What, and licked your lips every time you drove past?

Yeah, yeah. That's happened. Yeah.

What did you think of your plates of venison?

Yeah, I mean, I really enjoyed it.

The only thing is it's not something that you see every day

at the supermarkets.

Would you like to see supermarkets selling it?

Um, yes, I think it ought to be more accessible

because then obviously people would buy it.

It would make a change for Christmas dinner, wouldn't it?

As long as it came with a full recipe of how to do it

and how not to do it, it can go on my list tomorrow.

I'm very glad you said that.

Do you think there's a fear of not knowing how to cook something new?

Yeah. Just being landed with a lump of meat

and thinking, well, what do I do with it?

You know, it's a good meat to eat

and if it's made available in Morrison's

Asda, Sainsbury's, all of them, then I would definitely give it a go.

People will eat it if we make it more accessible.

So, supermarkets, take note. Stock more wild venison.

If this doesn't convince you to try venison then I give up.

I have no more ideas.

This is also a good way to try and trick your kids

into trying venison when they wouldn't otherwise.

I'm going to make a venison burger and chips.

So, what I've got here is some muntjac mince

which is a very delicate flavour.

You should be able to order this from a specialist butcher.

Now, I'm making a patty for the burger

and this is a great opportunity for me to say some things

I feel very strongly about when it comes to burger-making.

Rule number one - no onion.

A burger should be a pure meat thing and, actually, all the onion does

is help the burger fall apart in the pan.

Rule number two - never put egg in it.

It's pointless. This is meat is protein.

It's naturally very sticky and all you do by putting an egg in

is make it rather dense and kind of urgh and kind of processed looking.

And rule number three - size matters.

Because a little ball goes in the middle of the bun

and you have to eat all the crust all the way round before you find the fun bit.

So I want a kind of burger as I know it

and I want it to go right to the edges of the bun.

So that's all I do. That is just meat.

And I'm going to top this beauty with a remoulade

punchy with mustard.

And quite a lot of it so two really generous teaspoons.

Spilling teaspoons in fact.

Very slowly...add the oil.

As you can see, that mayonnaise is nicely holding its own.

It's not drippy.

It's kind of bang on and it's got a lovely grrr from the mustard. OK.

Then mix it into some shredded celeriac.

Now you can start cooking.

So I want to get a little bit of fat out of the bacon

to cook the burger in so that can go on now.

I had quite a strange episode once with a, um, quite literally...

I was filming and we went to a hotel very late at night and everybody

was tired and there was a man trembling standing in the reception.

Saying he'd run over a dog and it was in his car.

So we offered to kind of help and come and have a look

and see what was going on and this man's sports car had run over

a muntjac and literally swallowed it like a fish.

We asked if we could have it and he said yes and we cooked

a fantastic muntjac which we'd taken out of a car radiator

in a pub car park and ate it with wet walnuts and ceps

and it was quite one of the best venison dishes I've ever made, actually.

But probably not the best way to get your venison.

Ah, that just smells sublime.

I think the important thing for me about burgers generally

is that there remains that element of junk to them.

We're too keen to put the burger in artisan bread

that kind of grazes the roof of the mouth and we put tomato compote.

I don't want tomato compote. I want ketchup.

And if you are putting cheese in it -

amazing squiggles cheddar from somewhere in the deep West Country -

well, I don't want that either. It doesn't melt properly.

I want a nice orange rubber slice.

Who doesn't like a burger?

A vegetarian?

Right, OK, chips are in.

Time to assemble my burger.

So, remoulade, red onion rings, some gherkin and ketchup.

Wow, that's going to be quite hard to master.

Venison burger with celeriac remoulade

and some good French fries.

Bingo.

I'll just say now that this ain't going to be pretty.

But it sure is tasty.

Really, really tasty.

We always seem to rely on the staples -

lamb, pork, chicken, beef - and I would say that maybe

the British table is becoming quite boring.

Wonderful things like venison of our land bring variety to the kitchen.

They're utterly delicious. We should be proud to have this meat.

Eat delicious wild venison.

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