When a charity stalk leaves you in the red

On his quest to find the most cost-effective way to fill his freezer, Will Martin eyes up some prime red meat in the form of venison

Iam not a pescatarian, and with both my past forays into discovering which sport provides most bang for your buck being positively fish-based, it was time to find some proper red meat. In the UK, this means venison.

Venison comes from the Latin verb venari (to hunt) and the old French venesoun, meaning “meat of a game animal”. When the Normans invaded England in 1066, King Harold lost his eye and William the Conqueror took the throne, bringing his language with him. French was, in fact, the official language of England until 1362. Interestingly, venison was a sort of catch-all word to describe hares, rabbits, boar and other game that landed on the plate of the early British monarchs. But of course venison is now taken to mean the meat of a deer.

Buying stalking is not that difficult; a quick Google search will bring up lots of sporting agents willing to take you out for £90 for a guided stalk. It’s important to note, though, that on top of this you will likely have to pay a cull fee dependent on the beast shot, as well as rifle hire. And if you would like to take the carcass home with you, you will normally need to pay around the £3 per kg mark.

For a medium-sized culled roebuck, 17kg in the fur, you would be looking at around £250 all in. Once dressed, you might get around 7kg of meat. While that would be enough for 14 suppers for two people, it’s difficult to see how I could succeed before I had even started.

Finding a bargain