Venison Pasty

This is a good robust pasty, very medieval and, indeed, along with the pastry trimmings it used to be decorated with hounds and deer. Venison is a curious meat, very lean and so very easy to dry out and, when wild, too gamey for a lot of palates. Certain areas of the country (usually around the old royal hunting forests) will not touch it, which is, no doubt, a genetic legacy of the horrendous Norman game laws.