Self-indulgence should go out with the old year, or at least by Little Christmas on January 6th, but with some people it lasts until the game season is over and delicious and nourishing fare such as wigeon or woodcock are no longer in the shops. With all the denunciations of farmers who dose their cattle with substances which are more than suspect, game presents a fairly sure healthy substance for your table.
The height of indulgence in this line comes with an annual gift from a culinary genius of a game pie. Luxury isn't the word for it. It is what is known as a raised pie. It stands up like a cake, and you eat it, cold of course, with breakfast, dinner or supper, in generous slices. Needn't go into all the details of cooking but some of the ingredients are duck (wigeon is the preference); pheasant, a bit of venison or hare; onion and juniper berries. Very important the latter, it seems. Needless to say, all bones are removed; and these are used to make a strong gravy, well reduced, so that when it is poured into the pie, it will form a good jelly.
Bacon, our chef says, should also be in the ingredients to give fat. And all of this is enclosed in what is called a hot-water crust. A good cookbook will tell you what you want to know. This game pie is, indeed the highlight of the feasting at Christmas, and not the turkey or goose. Oh, our man says that you can add mushrooms, if you like. Pouring in the stock/jelly through a hole in the top is a delicate move.
"Far from it some of us were reared," the carpers may say. Put it another way - we don't know how to make the best of the resources of our country. Look how we have almost obliterated the sea trout from vast areas of the West. Anyway, Mrs Beeton, who writes much about game among all her recipes, says you can make something similar using chicken, a bird that used to be found in every farmyard in the country and can now be bought cheaply in every supermarket.
The season ends for game bird shooting on January 31st, and what have we to look forward to? Well, on the Boyne system, the trout season opens on February 15th. Brown trout, the inland fish the ordinary person can catch and have for his next meal. A great natural resource.