Game birds and cooking programmes

Hi Kathy

I didn't think it was a modern idea at all. As far as I am aware eating game goes back centuries. And as well as individual game birds and the "bird within a bird, within a bird, within a bird, times however many it is" recipe, venison and rabbit were also eaten. Interestingly, many of these are now reappearing in supermarkets.

Squirrel

Kathy, I have to agree with Squirrel. We,as a nation,  have always eaten these game birds. We have to be realistic, the majority of us are meat eaters but don't like to think of the lamb etc. on our plate. The same applies to the birds offered to us to eat. Most are just raised to end up on our dinner plate and 'we' would rather not dwell on the subject.

Hi all,

I'm going to open myself up to criticism on this thread and I really don't mind but this is how I feel.

Many years ago, I went lambing with a friend to help another friend of hers who kept some sheep on a farm.  I spent a whole day helping out the ewes give birth  watching as the lambs were given life and rubbing them down as they hit the straw.   This was about 15 years ago I haven't eaten lamb since.  Before then I loved roast lamb, it was my favourite roast dinner. I do however eat beef, pork and chicken.  Hypocritical as it is, I would propbably stop eating these too if I had been there for the birth of any one of them.

Hi Kezmo

I don't think that is hypocritical at all. As I see it, due to your experience, you saw lambs in a completely different environment to the way most of us see them. If from that experience you felt unable to continue to eat lamb then you did the right thing in making a conscious decision to abstain. What would have been hypocritical is if you had felt as you do but still eaten it.

Hi Squirrel

Thank you.

Basically what I was trying to say is that people will turn a blind eye to what is and isn't "acceptable".  I agree with Brenda H, If we were to think too hard about where our food came from, all the animal lovers (me included) would be left with a nasty taste in their mouth!

I see where you are coming from Squirrel with what you say that it is human nature for people to hunt for their food. 

I just feel there is enough choice for us on the supermarket shelves already with getting to carried away with ourselves.  Can some birds/animals not be allowed to remain sacred from all our plundering.

Again with the lambs - you see them going through the process of being born, and it will tug at your heart strings.  Lamb are so cute looking when they are small.

Is it silly to see that duck and chicken are socially acceptable as normal foods we buy from the supermarket? They Have been living creatures after all.    If Teal, or Woodcock appeared that would be upsetting for some of us as bird lovers to deal with.

It is not the fact that we are meat eaters - it just the unusual source of the meat with these 'wild' game birds that I find hard to get my head around.

Kenzo: Maybe we are too soft hearted about it all.  Still like to see rarier wild birds in the wild though.{thumbs up}

By the way the person who produced the Game Skewers won, is coming back onto the programme once more - Firday I think!

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Hi Blackbird

I agree entirely  - sorry I went off on a tangent in my last post without really understanding what you were saying.

With all the choice that supermarkets provide is there really a need to sacrifice the rarer birds.  That's the trouble tho isn't it, there are those "foodies" out there who would quite readily spend a small fortune to obtain that one ingredient, and especialy if it is rare or hard to come by.

On a lighter note, you never know in a few years time, the unthinkable may happen - the "turkey twizzler" might make a come back!.....(i sincerely hope not!)

Kezmo

On a lighter note, you never know in a few years time, the unthinkable may happen - the "turkey twizzler" might make a come back!.....(i sincerely hope not!)

 

Crikey Kezmo... steady on there... you'll be championing chicken nuggets next! (tee hee)

LOL Kezmo

No worries about anything I know I can get very emotive in what I am saying, and it has an affect of others how I say about  things at times.... and get carried away.

Squirrel cover you ears with your tail {wink}

Are there not Squirrels on the menu now in some restaurants now in England?

Regards

Kathy and Dave

It's a hard one! Horse is widely eaten on the continent but having worked with horses for many years (a few years ago now) I couldn't bare the thought of it as food.... Same as hares.... I'm really lucky to see them almost daily and love watching & photographing them (some pics in galleries), and again, the idea of eating one horrifies me! I won't eat rabbit either having had a rabbit as a pet when I was younger.... yet as an animal lover, I still eat meat! I won't eat Highland cow meat as I think they're gorgeous, but will happily tuck in to a nice roast beef dinner! Crazy!

I know where you're coming from MarJus! Personally, I eat meat and don't have an issue with game birds (provided, of course, they are not rare and/or endangered). I also don't really have an issue with those people who hunt/shoot 'for the pot' (i.e. small scale, for themselves) - I do take issue though with people who hunt for so-called 'sport' (ie fox hunting). Anyhow, that's my ten-penn'orth, for what it's worth!

Hi Cartimunda

I know where you are coming from.   Fox hunting .....oh I could go on for hours on this one! I will endeavour to hold back..........but.....no it's no good I have to go on!

I understand that foxes carry rabies.  I understand that foxes kill livestock, I understand they can run rife and cause untold damage and I have seen the devastation they cause when they kill livestock but don't actually eat it.

What I really don't understand is why there is a need to run the animal to the ground over miles of field and then let it be ripped to pieces by a pack of dogs.  If the animal is a problem then shoot it, it is a quick death and the episode is done within minutes. What is th purpose of making the poor thing suffer......miles away from home, if it is female, away from its cubs.

I'll never forget when we had a car accident 360 miles from home, luckily we were unhurt but the car was a right off.  Not having much luck with the insurance company or the breakdown company we were members of, the police called another breakdown company to help us out.  The guy who turned up lived locally in Exmouth and was due to finish work a couple of hours after the call out but he offered to take me and my partner and the car all the way home to the Essex coast (about 5 hours each way). We spent many of the hours talking about nice, conversational general things, when the guy got onto the subject of fox hunting.  To cut the story short he was pro fox hunting...aware we still had 200 miles to go before we reached home and it was going to cost us nothing, my mouth was chewing buttons not to say anything that would cause us to be chucked out the recovery vehicle.   I fumed all the way home staring daggers into the head of the driver. My OH, knowing how I felt, kept interrupting the conversation with "oh look there's a dead shoe on the motoroway how very interesting" and "did you see that .....I'm sure that was a kestrel sunbathing"

I agree with you both as regards fox hunting and hunting for 'pleasure' in general! I just can't understand how they can get enjoyment out of it. Alas the so called ban doesn't seem to have stopped hunting here... there are even reports of hunts going through a local nature reserve a few times, without permission of course!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone - have thoroughly enjoyed this thread.   it's a very hard one to call personally I was reared in the country and we ate more or less anything that moved and could be caught and I too struggled to save lambs at birth only to fatten them to send them to slaughter for meat - sounds horrific to me now.   I suppose years ago we only hunted for our personal needs and I think there was a healthy respect for all living creatures even those we ate.   I think Blackbird is saying we are all more 'civilised' now and should judge wisely what we choose to call 'food' and make sure that those animals reared for meat and treated humanely at all stages of their lives.  No we dont need to eat woodcock, teal or many other items on the menu!  TV just wants to shock and upset us and thats what it has achieved with this programme.    Fox Hunting - I took my children to a nature reserve some years ago and part of the land was leased out and we had to witness fox hunting going on whilst we were there (the people were all from the city there just for the joy of killing something) we left early because the girls were so distressed.

Something different but similar occurred yesterday - my neighbour who is in his eighties was clearing out his garage and knows my great love of nature and so presented me with a small box containing two birds eggs that he had collected as a small boy one of which was a cuckoo's egg I cannot decide whether I am pleased to have these or not!  I know they were blown 70 years ago so there is nothing I can do but cant quite get my head round 'owning' them.

Sorry if I have gone on and digressed - here's a laugh when I came in with the eggs my mum in law asked what they were (she is nearly 90) and when I told her - her reply was that was nice of him are you going to boil them?