GAME

Chef Phil Vickery is a game enthusiast with a mission. Consequently, there are no whole-roasted pheasant or partridge recipes here. It is out with the old and in with the new, as the book’s subtitle suggests: new ways of cooking and looking at game, and, hopefully, encouraging a wider audience to eat it. The passion for wild animals and wild meat goes hand in hand, and Vickery is succinct and no nonsense in his admiration.

The book is divided into five chapters: feathered; ground game; wildfowl; fish; and basics. The recipes are first rate, including plenty of ways to keep pheasant legs delicious, from wrapping in filo pastry with black pudding to pressing them into a terrine.

The feathered-game chapter really does ring some changes. Birds are potted, breasts sautéed and tastes are modern; snipe on sweetcorn and tarragon pancakes or grouse soup fit the mission statement.

With following chapters offering further delicious game combinations – with recipes written in numbered steps, useful but not verbose – Vickery allows the wild meat to be the star of the show. By Phil Vickery and Simon Boddy Kyle Books, £22