Game

Appears in

A Taste of the Highlands

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2021

About

Rothiemurchus

Cairngorms National Park

Once described by David Attenborough as ‘one of the glories of wild Scotland’, the Rothiemurchus estate is the jewel in the Cairngorms National Park. Owned and cared for by the Grant family for over 500 years, it is indeed a special place, adapting with the times to ensure the survival of the ancient pine forest, exceptional wildlife and diverse communities who live in the embrace of the Cairngorms mountain range. There are few places that demonstrate such an insight into the relationship between the natural heritage, the people and the food. And the two people who, for the last 50 years, have worked tirelessly to bring this concept into our consciousness are Johnnie and Philippa Grant of Rothiemurchus, who inherited a Highland landscape they feel passionate about and have strived to make sustainable.

Johnnie and Philippa fell in love over food. In the late 1960s, they spent their honeymoon eating and drinking around France, absorbing the terroir, and returned home convinced that, even though they might find it challenging to produce the best-quality food in the foothills of the highest mountain range in the UK, Highland venison could be enjoyed as deliciously velvety, lean, easy-to-cook meat and that pure-bred Highland cattle should once again be recognised as providing the finest traditional, matured, tender beef. Up to this point, wild venison had often been regarded as ‘too strong’ and every red deer recipe began with ‘how to prepare the marinade’ for 24–48 hours to tenderise the meat and mellow the taste. This was because many deer are shot in the autumn during the mating season when the stags are fuelled by testosterone. Most venison comes from old red deer stags, culled as ‘going back’ because they could not attract hinds, or weak beasts ‘better off the hill’ as they won’t survive a harsh Highland winter. And deer can only legally be shot throughout the year if they are in fenced areas.

Johnnie asked the North of Scotland College of Agriculture if he could learn from Bill Hamilton, a great character who was researching how to farm wild deer in Scotland on ‘the College’ hill farm. Instead of shooting red deer that strayed into deer-fenced land, Johnnie started to close the gates, and during the first two summers Silvie Mackenzie, the Swiss wife of one of the first Rothiemurchus countryside rangers, bottle-reared the deer calves to tame them, establishing a herd that could be handled safely. Within an extensive fenced area of hill ground where deer have a plentiful supply of the right food throughout the year and breeding is controlled, a herd can provide a supply of fresh venison that tastes exactly the same as completely wild red deer when their meat is not available.

Traditionally, the wild venison enjoyed at Rothiemurchus is from the younger stags and hinds, about two to three years old, in peak condition. Their lean meat is deliciously tender and clean-tasting, high in protein and minerals. The skill of the professional Rothiemurchus deer manager includes using his knowledge and experience to select a deer for culling and to plan the stalk to get within range, undetected, waiting for the right moment to take a humane shot. If an animal is shot while stressed its glycogen is depleted, which means there’s not enough lactic acid produced post-mildertastingmortem and, in general, the meat is rendered tough and tasteless.

The Rothiemurchus team treat deer carcasses with great care and dignity. They examine the health and condition of the shot deer, control the temperature and prepare them for hanging for 5–7 days to ensure a tender, milder-tasting meat. Johnnie has used his understanding of the deer’s anatomy to develop new cuts of venison with the Rothiemurchus in-house butcher – easy-to-cook minute steaks, as well as thicker ones, trimmed casserole, rolled roasts, burgers and sausages, all vacuum-packed for a clean look as well as for freshness and convenience. The quality and provenance of the meat makes a difference to visitors and locals as terroir is at its heart.