Game meat has a tendency to be quite tough and dry, so is usually hung after shooting to break down the tough fibres and help tenderise the flesh. Hanging also allows for development of the traditional gamey taste. The longer the animal is hung, the stronger the flavour of the meat will become.
Buying game
Good quality, oven-ready game is available from supermarkets and also specialist game dealers, some butchers, fine food fairs and by mail order. There are specific seasons when certain fresh game is only available, but much can be bought frozen.
Young game will only need a quick roasting at a high heat, but older game will be tougher and requires long, slow cooking.
Most wild game is only available during the shooting seasons, which vary from animal to animal, but tend to run through the autumn and winter months.
Ask your game dealer/butcher to clean the animal for you (furred animals are skinned and paunched and feathered game is plucked and drawn) and watch out for small metal ‘shot’ pellets and imbedded feathers and fur within the flesh – even supermarket game can’t promise to be completely without it.
Farmed rabbit has pale, soft meat and a delicate flavour, whilst wild rabbit has darker flesh with a more gamey taste. Rabbit can be roasted whole, or, more commonly, divided into joints and casseroled (a useful method of cooking the rabbit if you are uncertain of its age). Rabbit can also be separated into different cuts and treated in a variety of ways - for example, the kidneys can be pan-fried and the ribs lightly breaded and then baked to serve as tiny canapés, or the saddle boned and stuffed. Cooked rabbit is delicious in pies and pates.