I love game meat, especially in winter time I like to eat it, and I am really happy to find different ways to prepare it and to use all the cuts.

This is not a difficult recipe at all, it just requires some time, but the result is really nice. Moreover, if you don’t hunt but you buy the meat, the neck it’s quite a cheap cut 🙂 the most difficult part is to tie the meat, but if you have a good manual skills it’s nothing impossible. But I suggest to use the neck from a young venison, otherwise there is the risk to have a tougher and more dry result. In this case it was really soft and nice.

INGREDIENTS (2-3 people):

• 1 young venison neck (with no bones), about 650-700 grams
• fresh sage and rosemary
• 20 g dried porcini (or 200 g fresh ones)
• 500 ml of meat stock (ideally venison stock, but also beef stock can work)
• half glass of wine (at your taste, I used a dry white wine)
• 15 grams flour
• 15 grams butter
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

First of all there is to flatten the meat well, and tenderize the fat bottom portion that connects to the shoulder (carefully), then season with salt, pepper and place on it the dried porcini (previously soaked in water for 20-30 minutes) and the fresh herbs. Then tie the meat and season also outside with salt.

Take a cocotte and heat some extra virgin olive oil, then brown the meat on all the sides. Then remove the meat and deglaze with the wine.

Then put back the meat in the cocotte, add stock until reaching less than half of the meat thickness. Cover and place in the oven at 180 °C, static, for about 90 minutes (if the venison is older also up to 2 hours).

Meanwhile prepare the roux: heat the butter, then remove it from the fire and add the sifted flour, whisk together. It’s ready. Put it in a cup and let it cool down.

After that time, remove the meat and keep it aside, wrap in an aluminium foil. Then start reducing the sauce at higher heat, add the cold roux (not all in one, and maybe you don’t need all) and whisk. Keep cooking until you have a nice texture.

Remove the wire from the meat, slice it carefully with a sharp knife, brown the slices of meat in a skillet until you obtain a nice thin crust.

Serve it with the sauce, and the side dish you prefer. Enjoy 🙂