Noisettes of Venison with Foie Gras and Madeira Sauce

Venison is an overworked word that has to do duty for the meat of anything antlered. Generally it means the flesh of red, fallow or roe deer. There is little point asking the butcher which is on offer any more than enquiring which breed of lamb or beef is on the slab. Yet they are different in several respects: size, tenderness and taste.

Recently killed venison doesn’t taste much different from recently killed beef. Its flavour develops and matures with hanging. Really well hung ve