The Place of Game on St Andrew’s Day

As St Andrew’s Day is upon us, we thought we should be celebrating the holiday with a look at how game was used in the 1300s.

30th of November is an important part of Scotland’s history for this is the day us Scots celebrate the patron saint of Scotland. It has only been an official public holiday since 2006, but like most public holidays, this one too is celebrated with lots of good food which is where we come in! Game is an important part of Scottish history, and we always like to add a new line or two to celebrate our heritage such as our haggis venison sausage which was so popular last year we continued it for far longer than we had planned.

Andrew the Apostle officially became patron saint upon the signing of the country’s independence at the signing of the ‘Declaration of Arbroath’. This letter in 1320 addressed the Pope at the time, and was regarding King Robert I’s dismissal of his pleas to call a truce in the First War of Scottish Independence resulting in his excommunication. This was a cause for cultural celebration of the Scottish people, and still very much is today with music and ceilidh dancing also a big part of the celebrations once the feast of food has gone down somewhat!

So what did food look like back then? In the 1300s any form of meat was definitely only available to the most wealthy in society. Game was hunted by aristocrats with falcons, and dovecotes were bred in the yards of big estates. Wildfowl was presented as a centrepiece as a roasted bird, or diced in pies (as the famous children’s song goes).

Unlike today, they were lucky enough to have an abundance of wild boar as well but this species faltered in Britain around the 17th century due to overhunting and habitat loss. There have been reintroduction programmes since the 1980’s and in Scotland, we once again have a healthy population however the beasts are well known for their violent nature and therefore are more of an ‘extreme’ sport than other hunted species. They are also becoming a pest to farmers, which has called for an increase in hunting efforts, however they are also notorious for disease which makes it very complex for them to enter our food chain compared to their counterparts. Something our ancestors were not aware of, and could’ve been linked to various diseases in that era.

Also very unlike today, nobility in that time period had a penchant for more ‘exotic’ types of game, including species that are now vehemently protected such as swans, peacocks, and herons. The wilder your fowl the wilder the party. In this time, game was very much utilised as a way to display one’s wealth as it would often be paired with vibrant colours or expensive spices which didn’t actually always add to the flavour so much as to add to the spectacle of it all.

Now we know St Andrew’s day is commonly celebrated with Scotland’s most famous food stuffs such as a heart Cullen Skink to start, the humble haggis ‘neeps and tatties’ for the main event, and a traditional clootie dumpling for desert. However, we here at Woodmill Game as well as lots of other fantastic local Scottish producers have been keen to elevate the occasion by utilising some of our finest cuts of game in some innovative recipes.

So this St Andrews day all of us here at Woodmill Game want to say thank you, and slainte. We are so humbled by our fantastic Scottish surroundings, clients, and really do feel lucky to call this place home. We certainly will be celebrating ourselves with some of the finest wild produce from Scotland’s bountiful larder.