Name: Venison mince with pearl barley
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: ground black pepper; 1-1½ teaspoons flaked sea salt; 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley (stalks and leaves); 3 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, chopped to the same consistency as the mince; 3 smallish celery sticks, finely sliced from end to end; 2 medium onions, halved and finely diced; 75 g unsalted butter, lard or dripping; 3 medium carrots, quartered lengthways and medium diced; 100 g pearl barley, rinsed; 125 ml red wine; 1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée; 600 g venison mince, from any of our six wild deer; 4 cloves, crowns pinched; a heavy grating of nutmeg; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 2 bay leaves

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

What to Eat Next

By Valentine Warner

Published 2014

About

Wild venison is a much under-used meat and this is a shame, as we have plenty of it. Annoyingly, the meat of all deer species is referred to as venison, making no clear distinction between the culinary merits of each. I feel indignant on behalf of the deer as a result. Suppliers and butchers need to label the meat properly. It is confusing for the customer who might try a red deer one week and a roe the next and would not necessarily understand why the tas