Venison Terrine - A recipe for the refined hunter

Preparation Time: 3 hours.

Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes at 170°C/150°C Fan/ gas mark 3.5

Resting time in the refrigerator overnight. Serves 8 or can be kept refrigerated for a week and eaten slowly.

Ingredients

700 grams / 1.5 lbs of ground venison

300 grams / 10.6 oz of wild boar or high welfare pork belly fat. Half ground in with the venison and half sliced thinly.

100 grams / 3.5 oz of stoned dried prunes, roughly chopped

½ large white onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 juniper berries, well crushed in a pestle and mortar

3 fresh bay leaves, finely chopped

5 sprigs of fresh thyme, finely chopped

5 sprigs of fresh thyme, leave whole

2 organic eggs

Grated zest of ½ large orange

3 or 4 tablespoons of single malt whiskey

Salt and black pepper

There is nothing better than a terrine to take the senses back to the roots of ancient game recipes. A terrine is both the name of the earthenware dish and the food that is cooked and served in this dish. This chunky and textured dish is both strong in flavour and filling to the stomach.

Recipe

Place the chopped prunes into a bowl and drizzle over the whiskey. Set aside for 3 hours minimum.

if you have not done so already, grind the venison with half of the pork belly fat. I tend to grind the meat straight from the fridge or semi defrosted.

Place all the ingredients including the prunes but excluding the sliced pork belly fat and whole thyme stem into a mixing bowl. Now mix thoroughly with your hands.

Take 1 large or 2 small ceramic terrine dishes. If a terrine dish is not available then any ceramic dish that is oven worthy can be used. Line the terrine dish with the pork fat, spoon in the mixture, compress with a spoon as best as possible and add the thyme sprigs on top. Place the terrine in a bain-marie of hot water. The water should come two-thirds of the way up the terrine dish.

Place on the middle shelf of the oven and cook for 1hour 15 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from the oven. Take the terrine out of the bain-marie and leave to cool to just above warm room temperature. Place clingfilm over the dish and put kitchen scale weights or something heavy on top of the terrine to compress the meat. Do not use to heavier weight so the fat spills over the side. Now place the terrine in the refrigerator and leave overnight before serving.

*I purchased the pork belly fat from my good friends at Townings Farm who raise rare breed livestock and graze conservation designated land.

Serving suggestion

I prefer to serve cold, sliced with buttered sourdough toast and homemade chutney or a woodland preserve. Even better, create your own hunter's version of the traditional ploughman's lunch.

*Recipe Feature

This recipe is featured in the #venisonwednesday E-Book ‘Recipes by Hunters’ Collected and Designed by Mette Karin Petersen and is available to download here