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JR's notes:

When I lived in Luton, a local publisher launched a quarterly food-and-drink magazine called GOURMET and I was very flattered to be asked to contribute to the first issue, which appeared in the autumn of 1996. I don't know if it survived, but see REAL FOOD -DEMAND IT - May, 1997.

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John Radford asks...

ARE YOU GAME?

"...She said 'yes', and so he shot her..." Some jokes are so ancient that their punchlines are sufficient to elicit a groan unsupported, although the one at the end of this piece is, perhaps, the oldest yet.

However, as autumn approaches game is what we're talking about. The glorious twelfth has been and gone and pheasant, grouse, venison and all the rest of them are freely available if we care to go and look for them. But we don't, do we? And we're wasting an opportunity to enjoy some of nature's finest and most natural foods.

Let's start with what game actually is: in the factory-farmed, genetically-engineered, freeze-dried and crispy-breadcrumb'd world that is modern food retailing, game is about as natural as it gets. Whether it runs or leaps or flies, hurries or scurries or scampers, game is free- range the way nature intended. It lives wild in the countryside, surviving on its wits, eating what comes naturally and generally having a good time until it gets hit by a passing truck or eaten by one of its natural predators... Such as Man, for example. Yes, of course, gamekeepers rear birds for the shoot, and they're farming venison and wild boar these days here and there, but the fact remains that game animals and birds still lead a life that's as near as possible to the wild as you're likely to get in these crowded isles.

As a result of this, the meat of a wild duck, wood-pigeon, pheasant or red deer is naturally low in fat and rich in the proteins, minerals and vitamins that have, in many cases, been quietly blanded out of farm-raised livestock. Game is real food, real meat, real nourishment... And it tastes pretty good, too.

This fact has not been lost on the supermarkets, who are stocking all manner of game in styles and packs that you'd usually associate with more prosaic meats. No surgical skills are required: just look for woodpigeon or pheasant alongside the chicken-breasts, venison steaks, sausages or chops near the beef, and rabbit, hare, widgeon or mallard next to that exquisitely factory-farmed turkey. You hardly have to change your recipes - chicken casserole can become pheasant casserole, the piece of beef topside for Sunday lunch could, just for a change, be a joint of venison, and if you've ever had a hare mousse you may lose interest in mass-market pâté for life.

And, as the morning air starts to nip at your nose and the evening hangs with the smell of woodsmoke, the prospect of something good, wholesome, traditional and supremely tasty on the table - with a suitable glass of something old and red from Bordeaux, or Rioja, perhaps - may remind us all of how food really used to be.

If you'd like more information about game, where to get it and how to cook it, the Game Marketing Executive publishes a booklet which is very helpful. It costs a pound including postage and you can get it from them at PO Box 11170, London W2 1GS. They also operate a Game Hotline, which will put you in touch with approved game suppliers in your area, and even track down some of the more obscure items if you're having trouble finding them: [020-7724- 4300] during normal office hours.

And, as you serve up that winter-warming casserole of pheasant and partridge to your guests, they may ask "Were these birds really wild?"

To which you can reply "Well, I understand they weren't very pleased about it..."

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