With even the smallest commercially available turkeys and geese dwarfing the Christmas table, game birds offer a tasty and elegant alternative.
Unless you are particularly fond of goose Fricassée for days or weeks of turkey sandwiches, the festive centrepiece presents something of a problem for the Christmas cook. Rarely less than 3kg, small turkeys serve between 5-7 people, and a goose, although offering up less meat, remains similarly too large for a smaller family.
Festive fridge space is another issue. Acres of meat, yawning cavities and hefty bones are perfect for carving, stuffing and the stock pot; they are not so welcome in an already jam-packed fridge. After all, this space is much better taken up with (delete as taste and pocket dictate): your home-cured salmon experiment; mounds of croque-en-bouche; bottles of vintage Champagne. Such big birds also tie up the oven for hours and take time to prepare – and frankly, no one wants to be up to the small hours stuffing necks or boiling giblets.
Turkey crowns (whole birds minus legs), turkey supremes (breasts with wings attached) and even single turkey legs are now available. Eminently practical, to be sure. But what they lack in completeness, they also lack in festive cheer. Nothing beats the sight of a whole roast bird brought to the table in all its bronzed glory, with pipers piping and drummers drumming. It evokes memories of medieval feasting in a way that a “boned and rolled carving joint” never could. Luckily, there is a range of delightful game birds that offer a real and truly festive alternative.
Game, once the preserve of the hunting, shooting and fishing classes, is now a more egalitarian affair. Quality supermarkets offer a range (usually farmed), and both wild and farmed game is readily procured online from artisan butchers, specialist game dealers and farm shops. Fresh wild game is only available at certain times of the year (dependent on species, country and sometimes region), but happily, much is in season over Christmas. In any case, game birds are almost always available frozen if you can’t find fresh. As with all wild game, feathered or furred, birds should be obtained from a reputable and sustainable source.
Thankfully, birds usually come oven-ready, so there is no worry over having to pluck or “draw” (if you don’t know, don’t ask) them yourself. Not all game is particularly “gamey” either – a flavour that many love, but some find challenging. If you do like this intensely savoury hum, then be sure to seek out birds that have been well hung – good for enhancing flavour and great for tenderising the meat. The guide below will help you find the right size and flavour profile, and your specialist supplier will advise if in doubt. Game chips and clove-flecked bread sauce are traditionally served alongside, but game birds go just as well with all the usual turkey or goose trimmings.
A pheasant will serve one to two people, and a pair (known as a “brace”) looks wonderful carried aloft into the feasting chamber. By Christmas, these usually lean birds have put on a bit of winter fat (a tale familiar to many) which helps with taste and tenderness. The breast is often wrapped in smoked bacon or pancetta for further moisture as they roast. The meat is rich and mildly gamey, so nothing too taxing for the uninitiated. The females, or hen birds, are considered to have a particularly fine flavour. If you go for a brace (male and female), make sure that everyone gets to try a slice of each. Ideally, pair it with a rich red Burgundy.
The grouse is a small bird: one per person is ideal. Known as the king of game birds, it is naturally lean and has a distinctive, rich and gamey flavour. Look for younger birds from earlier in the shooting season (available frozen by Christmas time), as they will have a more delicate flavour and be at their tenderest best in the roasting pan. Older birds, or those that have “over-yeared” (i.e. last year’s hatchlings), are stronger flavoured and better suited to long, slow braising. Grouse is famous for its Scottish highland links, so a nip of whiskey and a drizzle of heather honey in the gravy are perfect. Brandy also marries well (just don’t tell the Scots). Serve with the whiff of garigue that comes in a bottle of good northern Rhône.
Similarly to grouse, partridge is associated with the early season but is available right through the winter. You’re most likely to come across the red-legged or French partridge; the English or grey, although having a superior texture, is not commonly seen. Both have a nice subtlety of flavour that won’t scare novices. Its tender, moist meat has a creamy delicacy that resembles top-quality chicken more than its gamier cousins. Partridges roast very quickly, which can be a boon in the fraught yuletide kitchen. Serve one per person, with a classic Chardonnay to add a hit of citrus and apple to your gravy and accompanying glass (even a hint of creamy oak won’t go amiss).
Slightly larger but with a similarly subtle flavour, a guinea fowl serves two. The meat can be slightly drier than other birds, so keep it moist with butter, bacon fat etc. If you dare to break with tradition, then a little cream added to the meat juices along with the sweetness of prunes would be delicious. Fruit-packed stuffings work too. Accompany it with something refreshing from the Loire, like a Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé.
Presenting a domesticated supermarket duck at the Christmas table just won’t cut it. But opt for a wild duck, less fatty and with a lovely depth of flavour, and the gourmands will be queuing up. You may find smaller teal and widgeon, but mallard is by far the most common. It has a robust gaminess more akin to red meat than poultry and a slightly grainier texture than farmed varieties. With duck, it’s particularly important to know what they have been eating to avoid the murky flavours associated with the riverbank. Most available for the table will be semi-farmed, so that’s not usually a problem but check the source. Pair with the sharpness of cherry, cranberry or orange; the tartness of Pinot Noir or Gamay goes perfectly too. One duck serves two hungry revellers.
A platter of crispy-skinned quail makes a lovely festive centrepiece, tumbling with fruity stuffing and nestling on a bed of fresh watercress. You will need two per person as they are really, truly diminutive. Their size means they can dry out if not carefully handled, but the usual bacon and butter approach should prevail. These birds are delicate in texture, with a subtle sweetness that is barely gamey. They are a little fiddly to eat, but much greasy-fingered fun can be had if you are not above such things. Pair with a lighter, merlot-based Bordeaux or a fresh Chinon.
Don’t be put off by visions of the hobbling horrors of Trafalgar Square, wood pigeons are beautiful birds that make delightful eating. You’ll want to seek out younger, more tender examples for roasting whole. The meat is rich and gamey in character, favouring one of two approaches: the earthy intensity of black pudding stuffing and a puree of root vegetables such as Jerusalem artichoke or celeriac or the light fragrance of spices like juniper and fruits like fig. Allow one pigeon per person. Madeira works wonders in a sauce or gravy. Austria is a good call for accompanying wines: a Zweigelt, or better still, a blackcurrant-rich Blaufränkisch.
