Eat your hart out

The Countryside Alliance, through its Game-to-Eat campaign, has been doing some good work in promoting venison. It is higher in protein and lower in fat than other red meat; some supermarkets are now offering venison steaks and sausages, but fewer than 10 per cent of the population buy the meat. Since deer numbers in Britain have apparently never been so high, and the government has been advised that they should be reduced by a third, wild venison, generally with a better flavour than deer that have been farmed, should be more generally available. Thanks to friendly persuasion by the Alliance, wild venison was introduced last year on the menus of Great Western and Anglia trains.

The Queen enjoyed (one hopes) a dish of roe venison at the Mansion House lunch last month to celebrate her official 80th birthday. This had been chosen, after a series of television programmes, by a panel of judges and by viewers, and was cooked for the occasion, appropriately enough, by a Scotsman.