Potted Game
Potted Game is an easy but delicious spread using wild meat. In this recipe I use ready-prepared diced venison, partridge, and pheasant. This gives a meaty but mild game taste, plus a little smokiness from bacon, that everyone will love.
The game is slowly cooked in the oven with butter, stock, and a few seasonings until soft. Then it’s simply whizzed in a blender with a little more stock and chilled.
Serve just as it is or add a layer of clarified butter for extra luxury. Makes a great light meal, picnic food or an easy starter spread on toast or crackers with pickles on the side.
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It warms the heart to see that an old-fashioned recipe like Homemade Potted Beef is almost always in the top ten of my most popular posts. How wonderful that it has so many devotees in a world of constantly changing food fashions and fads.
Potted meats are a very old way of preserving. Made by slowly cooking meat in fat, the resulting mixture was pounded and put into pots. A layer of fat was then poured over with the aim of keeping out the air and stopping the meat going bad.
Although with refrigeration we no longer need such methods, I think there’s something so satisfying about potted meats.
So, after a Spring clean of my freezer turned up a small pack of mixed game, I decided to make Potted Game.
And I loved the result.
IS ALL GAME STRONGLY FLAVOURED? NO.
If you haven’t eaten much game before, you may be concerned that it all has a very strong flavour. After all, robust meats are often described as ‘gamey’. But I think that’s misleading.
For example, if you’ve eaten wild rabbit, you’ll know that it isn’t strongly flavoured at all. Try my delicious, luxurious Rabbit in Creamy Cider Sauce and you’ll see what I mean.
And the same goes for my Potted Game. My 300-gram pack of mixed game was half venison. The other half was a combination of pheasant and partridge. The finished article had a lovely meaty flavour but certainly wasn’t overpowering. The lighter flavours of the game birds balancing those of the deer meat.
Of course, if you’re not buying mixed game then you can change the proportions of different meats to suit your own taste.
OTHER INGREDIENTS FOR POTTED GAME
One of the great things about potted meats is that the list of ingredients needed is usually fairly short. My Potted Beef is just beef, salt and pepper, butter.
However, game is often quite lean which could give a dry result. So, I add a couple of other ingredients to my Potted Game.
Although there’s plenty of butter in there to give rich flavour and texture, I also add smoked streaky bacon.
This not only provides important extra fat and moisture, but a delicate hint of smokiness.
To make extra sure the meat doesn’t dry out, I include a little chicken stock in the cooking pot. I also set some stock aside for later. To get the right spreading consistency, it’s good to add stock when blending the potted meat.
For flavour I popped in three cloves of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme too. As it cooks in the oven for several hours, the garlic becomes very mellow. So feel free to add more if you want a more pronounced garlic flavour.
COOKING POTTED GAME
Once you’ve stirred together the meats, stock, and seasonings, you simply top with the butter. I slice it then lay over the surface so the meat’s covered.
Then you put on a lid, and it goes into the oven preheated to 160 C / 140 C Fan / Gas 3. After around 45 minutes, I give everything a good stir. This separates pieces of meat which may have become stuck together.
Then I put back in the oven and cook until everything is very tender.
Different meats, and different ovens, will naturally vary. Consequently, it’s not possible to say exactly how long it will take. But allow for 2 – 3 hours. Mine was done at 2½ hours.
BLENDING
After cooling for a few minutes, you can then put the entire contents of the cooking pot into a blender or food processor. You’ll almost certainly want to add some of the reserved chicken stock too.
The Potted Game should have a spreadable consistency once cold. As it will be much firmer then, you need to allow for this and create a looser mixture at the blending stage when it’s still warm. I added 30 ml of stock when blending.
It’s up to you how fine or chunky you want your potted meat. So just blend for the appropriate amount of time. I went for almost entirely smooth.
Make sure you taste to check the seasoning at this point. Add more salt and/or pepper if you think it needs it.
Next, transfer to clean jars, ramekins, or whichever other containers you want to use. I found the recipe was just right to fill three of my rather cute 125 ml capacity Kilner jars.
Cover with lids, then leave to cool. Once cold, pop in the fridge to chill and completely firm up.
OPTIONAL: ADDING A LAYER OF BUTTER
While you don’t have to add the traditional layer of melted butter on top of potted meats, I do think it looks good. Also, if like me you’re a big fan of butter, then you’ll perhaps agree that there’s not much that isn’t improved by a liberal addition of it.
Because of its better keeping qualities, it’s usual to top with clarified butter. All this means is that after gently melting, the butter is left to stand for a few minutes so that the white milk solids (which go bad more quickly) sink to the bottom.
You then pour off the golden yellow clarified butter and use that, discarding the solids. Make sure the Potted Game is completely chilled before pouring over the melted butter.
You’ll need 20-30 grams of butter, prior to clarifying, to cover each small jar.
When the butter layer’s been added, put back in the fridge to firm up.
SERVING POTTED GAME
My favourite way of eating Potted Game is on good homemade bread, lightly toasted or briefly shown the griddle pan.
All it needs as accompaniment is a few pickles to cut through the richness.
Don’t be mean when you’re spreading either. This is a treat, so enjoy it!
Actually, there’s one other accompaniment that went really well with this Potted Game. Single malt whisky. I was introduced to the pleasures of drinking whisky with food by the folks at Distilled Events.
These are the same people behind Moorland Veg Box, but David and Leonie Wood also have a wealth of experience in the drinks industry.
Besides running tasting tours and events, and their organic veg box scheme, they bottle their own whiskies under the label The Moorland Distiller ‘Fraoch Mòinteach’ (Gaelic for ‘moorland heather’).
I had open a bottle of their latest, Edition XII, a Speyside single cask single malt, and loved its fruity flavour alongside the rich, buttery, game.
EASY, DELICIOUS POTTED GAME
Whether or not you add clarified butter, I think it’s best to use the Potted Game within 4-5 days. Although that’s very unlikely to be a problem.
Rich, delicious, but wonderfully simple, if you love meaty flavours, I think you’ll love it as much as I do.
Have you made this recipe?
Leave a comment and don’t forget to rate it.
Potted Game
An easy but delicious meaty spread with a mild game flavour and a hint of smokiness from bacon.
Serve on toast or crackers with pickles on the side.
Ingredients can easily be multiplied up to make a larger amount. Cooking time should be unchanged if a larger casserole dish is used.
Ingredients
- 300 g diced mixed game e.g. venison, partridge, pheasant
- 3 rashers streaky bacon roughly chopped
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 100-125 ml stock
- 3 garlic cloves skinned, but left whole
- few sprigs fresh thyme
- 100 g butter salted or unsalted
Butter topping (optional)
- 60-90 g butter
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 160C /140C fan /Gas 3.
Cut up any larger pieces of game so they are all roughly the same size.
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Put the diced game and chopped bacon in a small casserole dish and season with pepper and very lightly with salt: take account of how salty your bacon is and whether your butter is salted or not.
Stir 75ml of the stock into the casserole then add the whole garlic cloves and sprigs of thyme, pushing them under the surface.
Slice the butter and lay it over to completely cover the meat.
Put on a lid (add a layer of foil underneath if the lid isn't tight fitting) and transfer to the oven.
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After 45 minutes, stir the contents of the casserole to separate any pieces of meat that have stuck together, then put back in the oven.
Continue to cook until the game is very tender (2 - 3 hrs), stirring occasionally and adding more stock if it seems dry.
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When the meat is done, remove the casserole from the oven.
Pick out and discard the thyme sprigs.
Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
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Transfer all the contents of the casserole to a processor or blender.
Process, adding as much of the unused stock as you need to create a spreadable consistency: note that once cold the potted game will be much firmer so it's better to have it looser at this stage.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
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Transfer the potted game to small jars or other containers, cover and leave to cool. Put in the fridge when completely cold.
Tip: If the potted game is too firm to spread when cold, remove from the jars and beat in more stock. Wash, rinse and dry the jars and re-pot.
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Optional: add a layer of clarified butter.
Gently melt the butter in a pan. Take off the heat and wait a few minutes for the white milk solids to fall to the bottom. Pour the top, golden layer over the potted game, discarding the white solids.
Chill again to firm the butter.
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Use within 4-5 days.
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