Until the last few hundred years, venison was the staple meat of human beings; our bodies have evolved to use this marvellous meat that offers Omega-3, iron, and protein in plenty, but less fat and cholesterol than skinless chicken, writes Nichola Fletcher.

So it is strange that venison is one of the most misunderstood of meats. Sadly, there are still chefs, food writers and PR agents who still dole out culinary misinformation with the result that too many people have unsatisfactory experiences in cooking it. Thirty-five years of working with this fabulous meat has made me realise that the reality behind venison’s eating quality is complex and fascinating, but that cooking it is actually incredibly simple.

One confusion about venison is that there are four different species of deer common in Britain: Red, fallow, roe, and muntjac. Each one is roughly twice the size of the next, so their cuts (e.g. loin, fillets and haunches) vary hugely in size and texture, but many recipes don’t make this clear. Although they live in different habitats, including those farmed or reared in parks, their diet hardly affects the flavour at all because there is so little fat - it is fatty tissue that transfers flavours. So there is no ‘best’ species of deer; each species can produce the most fabulous venison or it can produce foul rank meat, or somewhere in between. The differences lie in the way it is handled. The things that can affect the flavour and texture are age, sex, stress at killing, bruising, bullet damage, and, most importantly, hanging the carcase before or after skinning. Hanging venison in the fur (the norm with wild venison) has a huge effect on flavour and smell, especially with males.

But assuming that you have some supremely good venison: young and tender, no stress at killing, skinned immediately and then hung properly to allow it’s superb, delicate flavour to mature, and finally expertly butchered and trimmed, what to do with it then? The art of cooking venison successfully is to realise that there are three main elements of good eating quality: flavour, texture and succulence. Being so lean, venison, like other game meats (or lean pork, for that matter), can become dry and tough if improperly cooked. So rule 1 is: either cook it quickly and serve it pink (steaks, roasts, stir-fry, etc), or else cook it slowly and gently for well-done (stews, pot-roasts, braises, etc). Anything in-between the two produces unappetising grey, tough dry meat, no matter how young and tender it was to start with.

Next, let's do away with some 'don'ts'. Such as, it is not necessary to marinate venison for days; indeed in some cases, this can actually dry out the surface of the meat and it certainly masks its superb flavour. Marinades were traditionally only used to mask over-strong meat. To add the flavour of wine and spices, simply sue them in your cooking. Many people feel it necessary to add fat by larding their lovely lean venison, or wrapping it with bacon. The most important contribution I feel to have made to the gastronomic world is to point out a very simple fact: pink meat cannot physically be dry. Therefore if you cook venison pink, there is no need to add fat. And the simplest way to ensure that pink meat (i.e. steaks, roasts) never overcooks is to cook it in three stages. First brown it, then part-cook it, then leave it to rest. I have converted thousands of people into successful venison cooks with this simple principle.

On the other hand, slow-cooked venison does need some form of lubrication to make up for the lack of fat and the lack of pink juices. Larding and fatty bacon can of course be used here, but there are many other delicious ingredients that produce the same pleasant texture in the mouth: mushrooms, onions, garlic, carrots, prunes, aubergine will all, when cooked, lend that vital succulence to stews, meatballs, stir-frys and other scrumptious made dishes.

So that's the Nichola Fletcher method in a nutshell: cook roasts and steaks pink, and lubricate slow-cooked dishes. Then your venison will always give pleasure.

Nichola runs an upmarket venison mail order business in Scotland and was nominated for a Slow Food Award and the BBC Food & Farming Awards for her thirty-five years work with venison. For information and venison recipes, visit www.seriouslygoodvenison.co.uk. Nichola is also a food writer specialising in game meats and has written five books on their history, preparation and cooking. Her latest book; Nichola Fletcher's Ultimate Venison Cookery has been hailed as a classic, and has won a Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2008. For information about Nichola's books, articles, tutored game tastings, workshops and demonstrations, visit her website www.nicholafletcher.com.

The article Venison - designer meat for humans originally appeared on 999 Today