Shooting season means game grub at The Jugged Hare – this London gastropub is fast becoming the authority on game, plucking, trussing and cooking up a storm.
As the name suggests, The Jugged Hare is dedicated to exciting and educating its diners about game, from the innovative menus with daily specials, to its sourcing from many different suppliers all over the UK (and further afield into France, Germany and the Czech Republic).
The Jugged Hare’s open season has kicked off with its eponymous 18th century dish – jugged hare. Hare has returned to British menus following the six-month ban on hunting which allows the animals to breed. Cooked in a traditional tall jug, the slow-braised hare meat is finished off with a sauce of its own blood and is one of the finest examples of this under-used meat you will find in the capital.
Ingredients are sourced from Ben Weatherall of Yorkshire Game Company as well as many other small, select gamekeepers and riflemen up and down the country. Innovative and delicious dishes include salt-baked grey-legged partridge with skirlie and juniper jus; snipe kiev with pickled cabbage; devilled game giblets on toast and the ‘dive bomb’, a tufted duck pastry bomb delivered flaming to your table. Look out for clay pigeon stew served in specially made clay pigeons with a sloe gin shot served in an oversized shotgun cartridge. More traditional game fayre is available in the pub’s grouse feasts for parties of six.
From October, The Jugged Hare will be opening its doors to the first ever ‘Bring Your Own Brace’. For the start of pheasant season, bring your own proudly shot hen and cock pheasants, ready hung and plucked, and they will be prepared for you in the kitchen by The Jugged Hare’s team of chefs.
Learn to pluck, truss, butcher and dress various game birds with The Jugged Hare Game Masterclass. Available upon request from October to February, classes are of 8-16 people cost £150 for a three-hour class with a three-course game feast, matching wines and a sloe gin cocktail on arrival.
The Jugged Hare’s dedication to game doesn’t stop there; a daily-changing specials board often featuring less common species such black grouse, moorhen, golden plover, even squirrel, as well as wild boar and deer shot by Tom, Ed and their senior chefs, and brought back from their annual hunting trip in Europe – all ensuring that diners will be able to taste the very best of the 2013 shooting season.
The Jugged Hare
49 Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4SA
T: 020 7614 0134
