KACHEN #28 (Autumn 2021) English Edition

SEASONAL RECIPES
WILD WORLD
STRAIGHT FROM THE
FOREST – MORE NATURAL
IS HARDLY POSSIBLE. GAME
BRINGS AN INCREDIBLE
VARIETY TO YOUR KITCHEN.
TEXT Oliver Zelt
Two cooks are in charge of the departure. The two aren’t
just talking about the gutting of the animal as it is known
in hunting circles. Ludwig Maurer and Heiko Antoniewicz
want a “completely new philosophy.” For them, it’s not
about the “one hundredth saddle of venison filled with
cowberries.” “A new understanding of nature and wilderness”
is necessary. The holistic processing is part of that.
For that reason, Maurer and Antoniewicz – who both
belong to the most creative heads on the German restaurant
scene – serve venison Ossobuco with vibrant violet
red cabbage gel, cheek of wild boar cooked sous-vide in
tomato essence, and a dish consequently called “departure.”
A ragout of deer heart, lung and liver served with
fluffy horseradish crème.
GAME IS A TRUE PRODUCT OF NATURE
This is all very far removed from classic dishes – the
heaviness of a bacon-laced joint roast with steaming red
cabbage and dumplings. Deer, venison and wild boar
now receive an airy lightness and so fit perfectly into the
modern kitchen. Wild boar can be wildly delicious.
Game is one of the few real nature products.
Animals that look for food in the forest and defy
enemies have excellent meat. Very few seem to know
about this, however, for most people do not go wild
for wild game. In Germany, just one percent of all
consumed meat is game.
The meat of the forest has long suffered from a bad
image: it has a strong smell and strong taste and must
therefore be preserved in buttermilk. These stories
come from a time when a fridge was still a luxury product,
and the animal was eaten for as long as it took to
consume – and not for as long as it was still good. The
roast from wild game is a first-class alternative to beef,
pork and chicken that are often reared through intensive
livestock farming. “It’s the best of what’s running
around outside your door. The animals have never seen
a cage,” says Ben Weber, Chef of the “Gudde Kascht”
restaurant in Haller.
However, the hunters are by far not the only ones
offering game on the market. Almost half of the game
on offer comes from farming in which the animals are
kept in pens and are fed. What you can find in the supermarkets,
or even on the menu of restaurants, most often
comes from overseas, often from huge enclosures in
New Zealand. Meat from pens is said to be distinctly
lighter and has less taste than that from hunting
districts, cooks say.
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KACHEN No.28 | AUTUMN 21