Love salami, chorizo? Venison is the hot new choice

This might not seem the natural time of year to eat salad, but I’ve been experimenting, largely inspired by Ottolenghi and Niger Slater to use vegetables such as beetroot, carrots and fennel. Both hot and cold salads are delicious as they are you end up craving for a little something extra.

But what to eat with your salad?  Ever on the search for good Scottish product, I discovered Great Glen Game.

Great Glen Game’s venison salami is soft and not too chewy. Studded with green pepper, the flavour is subtle to begin with, then a lovely hot “hit” from the pepper. The venison flavour seems to intensify the more you have! Again, if you’d prefer to cook, they produce a lovely venison chorizo.

Great Glen Game Salami

Great Glen Game Salami

Having discovered Great Glen Game, I was intrigued to find out more. I caught up with Jan Jacob who runs the company

How do you describe your product to someone who hasn’t tasted in before?
Our charcuterie has a different taste then more common pork basedcharcuterie. It is not fatty, and has a very deep, intense flavour.

Tell me about Great Glen Game

We are a small artisan producer based in the Highlands of Scotland, and produce delicious Charcuterie made with wild venison sustainable sourced from our area. All our products are handmade with only pure wild venison, and organic spices and herbs.

Our range of cured and smoked products, includes venison salami’s, venison pepperoni, venison chorizo and smoked venison. Our venison Chorizo and Green Pepper Salami both won 2 gold stars in the Great Taste Awards 2010. Our products have a long shelf life,do not contain any pork and are gluten, wheat and egg free.

What inspired you to start the company?

I came to Scotland from the Netherlands 10 years ago with my wife and children to work as estate manager. Living and working in a rural, unspoiled part of the world was a dream coming true. Being involved in the management of the wild deer population the love for Venison was born. Experimenting with a hand built smoker in the garden, smoked prime cuts of Venison soon became the favorite talking point when friends came along for dinner. An idea for a business was born.

The old butcher shop in the little village of RoyBridge had been empty for years and here I was able to turn dreams into reality.

 

Great Glen, Asparagus and Venison

How do you do business?

We sell to farm shops, delis and food halls and also to some online retailers. In the Edinburgh area, you can find our products at Crannachan and CrowdieWest Craigie Farm Shop,  Earthy Foods and Edinburgh Larder.

What or who inspires you the most?
We love to work with local meat. Wild Deer grow in a natural, native environment and are sustainably managed by local estates for many centuries. It is fantastic to be part of this long tradition and turn the meat into a new innovative product.

What are you looking forward to this year?
We will be growing the business and would like to sell in more Farm shops and deli counters across the UK.

What do you most like to eat?

We love to cook and eat, we cook from scratch and bake our own bread. With a family of 6 kids, we are always cooking and baking. We grow our own vegetables and have lots of chickens. We sometimes raise pigs for the freezer. Of course we eat lots of our venison charcuterie. Our children love the pepperonis and eat them as a snack, they get one in their lunchbox everyday! We love adding the chorizo to soups and stews. We like experimenting with the products and develop new recipes.

Facebook
@greatglengame
01397 712121

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About Bread Baker Danielle

Danielle founded Edinburgh Foody in 2010. Having qualified as a professional bread baker in France in 2014, she is now on a new adventure in Gloucestershire. Check out severnbites.com Look out for occasional posts for Edinburgh Foody

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: Game Chef of the Year 2011 Competition Launched | Edinburgh Foody

  2. Pingback: Venison Recipe Using Fresh Herbs-Rosemary, Bay Leaves, Oregano » The Spice Style

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