Field & ForestSep – Nov
Game Kitchen Evening
Autumn, when the freezer fills
Autumn in Sweden is when the freezer fills, and a game kitchen evening is what happens around that. Elk, roe deer, wild duck, hare — meat that arrived through somebody's own season rather than an order, cooked by somebody who has done it every October for thirty years.
You cook, or you help, depending on how much you want to. Butchery is usually part of it: a leg broken down on a table with an explanation of why each muscle wants a different treatment, which is the part guests remember and the part no restaurant shows you.
Elk is leaner and stronger than beef and unforgiving of overcooking. Roe is the delicate one. Both are better on the second day, which is why there is usually something slow-cooked that was started yesterday.