Intensities of Game Meat

Yesterday was the first day of the Fall season, my personal favorite of the four (at least my favorite in Barcelona where the cold is never an issue). The chillier temperature, the colored leaves, the semi-naked trees, mushrooms, rain…  this moment of the year stimulates my emotions and my senses more than any other. As time passes, the list not only does not cease to grow, but it does so exponentially. At this point, you’ll probably be wondering why in this world am I so passionately talking about the Fall season and not about fish, meat, fruits, or whatever culinary story it is that I have for you. The answer: Be patient.

Among the infinite number of reasons that make the third season special for me, there is one that is perennial in the list: game meat. In my humble opinion, a top-notch stew with deer or partridge or wild pig or any other gamey meat, quality vegetables, and, most importantly, a quality sauce that is able to harmonize the flavors in the dish, is as good as it gets in one of those chilly and orange Fall days. The smells, the flavors, the feels, everything about quarry meat is synonymous with intensity. Even the characteristic dark colors of the stews and the flesh itself. There is no better remedy for a chilly day than a potent dish with game meat that after enjoying the complexity of its flavors it gits your body with an extremely comforting warmth sensation.

Of everything the game meat world has to offer, the wild pig is the most seen in my native Catalonia. The hunting of this animal has become routine for many locals, ergo why it’s the quarry meat most likely to be found at any restaurant. Wild pig is typically cooked in heavy stews with potatoes, onions, often mushrooms, and carrots, the star vegetable to accompany these intense meats due to its contrasting sweetness. The dark-colored wild pig casseroles with their intense aromas and flavors are always an extremely fulfilling culinary experience to have in any Spanish Pyrenees restaurant.

One of my personal favorites is partridge meat. The delicacy of the bones and the silkiness of the meat wrongly camouflage the exuberance of its flavors. Partridge meat is strong yet harmonious at the same time and a well-cooked casserole with it is certainly at the very top of my culinary desires. Similar to wild pig casseroles, carrots nearly always play the deuteragonist role to smoothen out the tastes, and quality freshly-picked mushrooms often appear from within the dense sauces. Game meat and mushrooms are one of the best culinary marriages possible, helping explain why these types of stews crescendo in popularity during the Fall, mushroom season. Other quarry meats of great gastronomic prestige are deer, roe deer, mouflon, and the elusive Eurasian woodcock and Western capercaillie, this last one being so rare I’ve never even had the opportunity of seeing it on any menu. In all of these fabulous culinary products, there is a bolded underlying theme. Intensity. In flavors. In aromas. In colors. The emotions game meat stews and casseroles transmit make them one of the most unique gastronomic experiences possible.