Date: Thursday 9th November 2023
Venue: Edgbaston Golf Club
Sponsor:
Adrian Riddle assisted by his wife, Jenny
Game Dinner Menu
Menu design by Roger Hale
Game Dinner Minutes
Date: November 9th, 2023
First of all I’d like to congratulate Roger on 50 years of Buckland membership*, that’s longer than Ronnie and Reggie Kray did, 26 and 31 years respectively in case you’re wondering and I guess he may only be beaten by The Yorkshire Ripper in time served. Although the longest sentence served is 72 years by Australian J. Ward, incarcerated in a mental asylum for murdering a man and stealing his boots, so some way to go Roger. I’m already planning my 50 year meal, by which time I‘ll be 99 years old, the theme will be liquidised food served by carers.
I’d been looking forward to this dinner for some time, as I grew up in the countryside, various game being a personal favourite of mine. Happy memories of shooting rabbits with my loyal terrier, along with chickens and goats, I’ve always said that it is dangerous for an animal that is so irritating to be so tasty.
On arrival at Edgbaston Golf Club, I was presented with a Ginger Beer and Ale, and shortly after due to some confusion, a cocktail of the two drinks, it brought back memories of being five hours into a student party, just scooping up everything and pouring it into one glass.
The wonderful Buckland Ale was brewed especially for our event, despite tasting remarkably similar to Ostlers Brewery’s ‘Terry’s Gold’ ale, consistency being the mark of a master brewer.
The Club’s own Buck Land Ale was brewed by member Nigel Beecroft, who is Head Brewer at Ostler’s Brewery in the White Horse, Harborne.
The canapés were, as always delightfully tasty. I’m not sure if the Buckland canapés are always excellent or if I‘m just hungry and grateful. However, they combined at least two of my favourites, Mushroom Arancini and Duck Liver Parfait, both cooked to perfection.
The evening started with canapés: Wild Mushroom Arancini and Mushroom Ketchup, Gaufrette Game Chips with Truffle Salt plus Duck Liver Parfait Cherry Gel, Croute.
The Game Chips with Truffle Salt were certainly bowls of Golden Wonder, they were definitely the real McCoy and I know from personal experience that making crisps of this quality is no Walker’s in the park. For the posher members, I wittily inserted makes of crisp into the last paragraph. What many of you might not know is that crisps were invented as an act of petty spite. The invention of crisps is attributed to George Crum, a chef at Moon’s Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1853. Legend has it that a customer complained that Crum’s French fries were too thick. In response, Crum petulantly sliced the potatoes incredibly thin, fried them to a crisp, and seasoned them heavily with salt. To his surprise, the customer loved the result, and the first potato chips were born as the Americans strangely insist on referring to them.
Our host for the evening, Adrian Riddle certainly looked the part of gamekeeper, dressed in elegant two-piece trousers, waistcoat and tie, looking like he had hot footed it from a shoot in an old Series 2 Land Rover. If someone was playing ‘spot the Gamekeeper’ that evening it wouldn’t have been difficult to win. Looking round the room I thought that playing ‘spot the retired nightclub bouncer’ would have been considerably more difficult.
Adrian regaled us with fascinating stories from the world of gamekeeping, including boiling rabbits for pheasant food, the violent but accidental murder of a poacher, therefore I’m guessing more accurately I should say, the violent and accidental manslaughter of a poacher. Also, a fascinating ghost story that contained absolutely no ghosts whatsoever. Therefore, more accurately, a story.
Adrian also went into gory detail about deer dissection and deer parasites, of which there are many, one of my favourites is nasal bots. Seeing as you haven’t started eating yet, I’ll recount a few of my favourite deer parasite stories.
Few horror movies have ever achieved the shock value of actually witnessing a giant maggot crawl out of a deer’s nostril. Hunters have been known to refuse to touch their deer again after seeing a nasal bot maggot emerge at the skinning pole, reinforces my view that fussy eaters are on the increase.
These revolting grub-like worms are the larvae of a bot fly, which lays its eggs in the nostrils of whitetails. The eggs hatch, and the larvae enter the nasal passages, where they mature deep inside the sinuses of a deer’s head. When they are ready for their next life stage, they crawl out of the deer’s nose and drop to the ground, where they morph into adult bot flies. Probably not a fun experience for the deer, but completely harmless to them as well as people and most likely edible. I’m looking forward to the Buckland parasite meal.
Other useful game information was that we don’t need to hang our pheasants until the maggots fall out as pheasants these days are only a few months old and tender …don’t wait for the maggots was Adrian’s advice, surely a clarion call for all our lovely meaty foodstuffs.
Adrian imparted more valuable information such as that badger sandwiches used to be a common snack. I googled ‘Badger sandwiches’ and surprisingly couldn’t find a single recipe for the best method of cooking a badger to make into a sandwich, just page after page of ideal sandwiches to prepare for a badger, not a picnic I’d like to go on. If anyone is thinking of going on a picnic with a badger, peanut butter is their preferred sandwich. I would offer a word of warning to choose your badger companion carefully.
Fortunately badger was not on the menu, only the table.
There have been many badger characters in history such as Mr Badger in Wind in the Willows, who turns out to be wise and kind, Brock the Badger from the Sam Pig stories, who is wise and relentlessly kind, the list goes on including Trufflehunter from Prince Caspian by C S Lewis who turns out to be a talking badger. He’s loyal, noble, steadfast and stout-hearted – as well as wise and kind, obviously. This is all well and good, but it turns out that in real life badgers are nasty bastards.
In 2003 a badger named Boris went on of a two-day rampage, attacking five people and leaving one man needing surgery for his bites (we’re still talking about a badger and not Boris Alexander de Pfeffel) he launched his attacks just a few miles from here in Evesham, Worcestershire, after being set free from a wildlife park. His final victim, suffered the most serious injuries needing two skin graft operations to wounds on his forearm and
legs. During Boris’s reign of terror, he also forced two police officers who were trying to catch him to retreat to the safety of their patrol car. I checked press headlines at the time and can report that sadly not one read ‘Badger attacks Panda (car)’.
If you’re thinking of tucking into a tasty Badger, it is perfectly legal for a restaurant to serve Badger but only from a sett menu.
A surprising number of people still eat badger in this country, although mostly roadkill finds as shooting for food is still illegal. Apparently, the meat has a strong musky smell that can take up to 3 days to disappear off your fingers, so always keep a pair of Marigold gloves in your boot if you’re thinking of making roadkill hotpot.
The next course was Pan Seared Rainbow Trout and Eel. We always loved eating eels as when I was a young boy – it was free food, something I’m always keen on. I used to catch them in the local river and wrap them in newspaper to keep them alive and fresh before nailing them through the head to a fence post and skinning and gutting them; there wasn’t much on TV inthose days so we had to make our own entertainment.
The first course of Pan-seared Fillet of Rainbow Trout was especially popular. It was accompanied by parsnip puree, roasted piccolo parsnip, smoked eel & eel sauce.
I googled “fascinating facts about eels” by way of research and found out that there aren’t that many fascinating facts unless you count:
1.They aren’t related to snakes
2. Can’t produce electricity. Electric eels whilst being able to generate up to 860 volts on demand, aren’t true eels rarely attack humans
However, dedicated to my task, I delved deep into the interweb and discovered what I consider to be a few fascinating facts:
A. For some unknown reason seals snort eels and have been found with dead eels hanging out of their nostrils.
B. Scientists conducted a study to see how cocaine affected eels, after much research they discovered that it made them hyperactive, I have the funding body details for anyone wanting to carry out research such as ‘Do bears shit in the woods? ‘
C. In Sweden people throw an eel down their well to keep parasites at bay, the eel gets free food and no predators. One such eel was thrown down a well in 1859 and died in 2014 aged 159.
On to our main course of Game Pie, as I may have mentioned in previous notes, having grown up in the countryside, Game Pie, or Badger and Poacher Pie as my local farmer worryingly used to call it, is one of my favourite foods. This pie was wonderful, the hot water and beef dripping pastry was a triumph and the filling succulent and full of flavour with just a hint of lead shot. Apparently, this recipe was from the Desperate Dan Cow Pie from an apparently popular television programme called The Great British Menu. I’ve sadly never seen it, having watched little television since Jerry Booth died on Coronation Street in 1973. I did some research, and it seems some chefs with very bright teeth and extravagant hair cook some food to be judged by the very best people in society to criticise their offerings a comedian, the mother of an ex Blue Peter presenter and the Brother-in-Law of a hotel chain heiress.
Head Chef Chris Haynes shows off the Game Pie
And so, onto dessert. With the night almost over, or so we thought, as we tucked into our pudding. Adrian Riddle’s delightful wife Jenny surprisingly stood up and delivered a wonderful and lively talk on the trials and tribulations of life as a gamekeeper’s wife. Wonderful stuff. We could have listened all evening to Jenny’s captivating stories.
Jenny & Adrian
I’m not one for desserts, but the Apple and Blackberry Almond Pudding with Creme Anglaise was one of the best I’ve ever had at the Buckland Club. Stiff competition eh?
Apple & Blackberry Almond Pudding with Crème Anglaise
The final course of Lincolnshire Poacher and Trufflyn Goat’s Cheese with Quince Jelly also kept the high standard of the evening.
The Lincolnshire Poacher & Trufflyn Goat’s Cheese that was served with Quince Jelly & Oatcakes.
Members also enjoyed a glass of sloe gin, pictured.
A fascinating night with many delightful tales that took me right back to my idyllic countryside childhood and in what seems to be par for the course now, beautifully cooked and edible food.
Dave Travis
Dinner Minutes Secretary
*The Game Dinner minutes were delivered by DT at the “50 Not Out” Dinner, in honour of President Roger Hale’s 50 years of Club membership.
-o0o-
Chairman’s Notes
Despite the best-laid plans, things went somewhat awry on the night. The normally laid back brewer was spotted in a state verging on panic. He feared that the beer was not up to standard, and his tastebuds were detecting more than a hint of ginger. This was not helped by his partner exclaiming that she preferred the taste! It transpired that EGC staff were merrily dispensing measures of ginger beer shandy to everyone, rather than offering it as an alternative to those wishing to reign in their alcohol content for the evening. An unusual concept for most Buckland members. Fortunately, the evening was yet young and the full hoppy taste of Buck Land Ale was soon on offer throughout the evening. The ale was sold at EGC in the days afterwards, and for those that have acquired a desire for more a stroll up Harborne high street to “The Horse” will find the house brew, Terry’s Gold, on sale. It bares a remarkable similarity to the Club’s unique beverage.
The Chairman reassures an anxious Head Brewer
Game Dinner or stag do?
