Our venison bresaola is officially exquisite, as judged by food critics, chefs, cooks, restaurateurs, producers, food writers and journalists in the Great Taste Awards 2017. We were the only UK producer of venison bresaola to receive two stars, in a year when 12,366 food producers entered the awards.

Why venison bresaola?
Venison bresaola was a natural development once we’d mastered the more traditional beef bresaola. And as Sussex has an awful lot of deer (too many say some farmers) and a long tradition of hunting (did you know that one of Sussex’s most famous forest, the Ashdown Forest, was a royal hunting park in the thirteenth century?) it was the logical thing to do. Here’s what makes our Sussex venison bresaola unique:

The meat – we start with the very best produce
Sussex wild venison (mainly fallow and roe deer) is a finer, subtler meat than the red deer found in Scotland. Roe is particularly prized by gastronomes because their diet is more varied – they seek out herbs, brambles, berries, young leaves and tree shoots from our forests – making the meat more flavoursome.

Sussex venison isn’t just delicious. It’s high in protein, iron and B vitamins, low in fat and has zero carbs.

Preparation, curing and drying – professional standards, small batch
As small batch producers, we make our venison bresaola the artisan way. Each piece of venison is cured with a blend of salts, home-grown (organic) herbs and spices, along with foraged secret ingredients that reflect its habitat. The meat is then cold-smoked and air dried, naturally. We don’t use any additives, other than curing salts, which are essential for food safety. We’ve lab-tested our venison bresaola to ensure it meets our exacting standards, which means top notch quality and low levels (less than supermarket bacon or hams) of residual nitrates and nitrites.

Packaging for premium quality
We vacuum-pack our venison bresaola to give it a three month shelf-life, which has again been lab-tested to ensure consistent quality of our product. For those of you ordering a gift box, we package the venison bresaola and other artisan treats with chilling devices and environmentally-friendly packaging to ensure it arrives in good condition.

How to eat venison bresaola
Some people love snacking on it just as it is. The important thing is to take it out of the fridge half an hour before serving and opening up the pack to let it get some air and come to room temperature.

It works brilliantly as an unusual canapé or snack to serve with drinks. Try it with water biscuits and horseradish, or even better, our forest mushroom thins and beetroot ketchup, which you can buy from local farmers markets, or order online as a party kit. (Minimum order of two kits to justify the delivery cost, which is free if you’re local to Brighton)

Or if you are eating it as a starter or light meal, it makes for a very special salad. Here’s a link to our recipe for venison salad with celeriac remoulade.

If you’ve tried our venison bresaola and love it as much as our regular market customers do, please tell your friends. Or if you’ve yet to try it, you can do no better than ordering a canapé kit or gift box. We promise you won’t be disappointed!