Game Catering Menus and Oven-Ready Dishes | The Game Larder
Game Catering Menus and Oven-Ready Dishes
Catering food is the food a supplier cooks in volume, carries to your site, and serves while it stays hot; this menu is a game catering offering of 12 oven-ready dishes plus 20 warmers and a 10 kg bulk line, so your guest list of 50 or 500 is the same job. It is a new, unaffiliated project that builds on the former eat-wild name; it is not the old owner, and it says so plainly. The line is Catering built on wild game, with no beef and no lamb anywhere in the kit.
The menu splits into four working parts. The first is Game Catering Near You, Delivered, which covers the standing catering range and how delivery is timed to your service. The second is Wild Game Catering for Weddings, the plated and canape formats that run at a sit-down dinner. The third is Frozen Food: Oven and Stovetop Timing, the shelf-stable product that travels in a box with no chiller. The fourth is the warmer plan, the kit that holds the first three hot for the length of the event.
What a game catering menu serves
A game catering menu serves whole cuts of wild game as the main event, not as a garnish. The standing range is built on 10 named dishes that repeat from one event to the next, and each names its species, its cut, and the number of portions it yields. The 12-dish oven-ready line and the 10 kg bulk line both draw from the same 10, so you can order a canape count and a plated count from the same dish and expect the same meat.
| Dish | Species | Cut | Portions per serving size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pheasant, saffron rice | Common pheasant | Whole bird | 1 bird feeds 3, or 1 breast feeds 2 | |
| Rabbit, garlic and rosemary | Rabbit | Leg, 2 per bird | 1 leg feeds 2 | |
| Parkin venison, red wine | Red deer | Steak, 140 g each | 1 steak feeds 1 | |
| Guinea fowl, blackcurrant | Guinea fowl | Whole bird | 1 bird feeds 2 |
The menu holds to one rule that a beef menu never has: the fat is thin, so the cooking is done by low heat and time, not by a baste. The 10 dishes are sorted by the temperature they are served at, and the warmer plan in the last section is built around that sort.
How oven-ready game is cooked to order
How oven-ready game is cooked to order is a fixed 2-step method that holds from a 300 g bird to a 3 kg rack. First the tray is pulled from the freezer and set in a 180 C oven for 25 to 30 minutes, and the internal temperature must reach 74 C before it is served. Second the tray rests for 5 minutes under a lid, and the resting time is what pushes the heat from the surface into the centre. The 2 steps are the whole method, and the Frozen Food: Oven and Stovetop Timing table below gives the per-portion figures for both the 180 C oven and a 160 C gas stove.
| Product | Weight | Oven at 180 C | Stovetop at 160 C | Internal target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pheasant, whole | 900 g | 25 minutes | 30 minutes | 74 C |
| Venison steak, 140 g | 140 g | 18 minutes | 22 minutes | 63 C for medium |
| Rabbit, leg | 350 g | 22 minutes | 26 minutes | 71 C |
| Rack, 3 ribs | 900 g | 28 minutes | 32 minutes | 68 C |
The 2-step method is the reason the oven-ready line can be dropped into a hotel kitchen with no chef on the pass: the oven does the work, and the 74 C target is the single number a kitchen porter can check with one probe. The timing is the mechanism, and the warmer that follows is what protects the result once it leaves the oven.
Weddings: plated and canape formats
Weddings run 2 formats, and the difference is how the 10 dishes are portioned. The plated format serves 1 main per guest at 180 g of meat, and a 120 guest table therefore needs 22 kg of game across the 10 dishes. The canape format serves 6 per guest over 2 hours, and the same 120 guest table needs 480 canapes at 30 g each. Both formats draw on the same Wild Game Catering for Weddings list, and both are built around the 180 C oven, so the kitchen runs one temperature for the whole dinner.
- Plated main, 180 g per guest, served at 70 C on the plate
- Canape, 30 g per bite, held at 60 C in a 2-tier warmer
- Family-style, 1 kg tray per 8 guests, kept in a 75 C roll-top
The canape count is the number that decides the warmer plan, because a canape must stay above 60 C for 2 hours and a plated main only needs to reach the table in the first 20 minutes. The 10 kg bulk line exists for the family-style tray, and it is the only format on this menu that a venue can buy on its own and hold without the rest of the service.
The warmer plan: holding food hot for the whole event
The warmer plan is the kit that keeps the food at its service temperature for the length of the event, and it is 1 of 3 sizes. A 60 litre roll-top holds a family-style tray at 75 C for up to 4 hours, and a 30 litre 2-tier canape warmer holds a canape at 60 C for 2 hours. The 3 sizes are sized to the format above, and each warmer carries a 15 minute heat check that the service staff run at the 1 hour, 2 hour and 3 hour marks. The 15 minute check is the only maintenance the plan needs, and it is written on the side of the lid in 2 lines.
Delivery is timed to the service, not to the start of the event. The 12 oven-ready trays arrive at the venue 90 minutes before the first course, and the 10 kg bulk line arrives 45 minutes before the family-style tray is needed. The 20 warmers arrive with the trays and are set up in the first 30 minutes, so the food never sits in the warmers above its target. The timing is the same on every event, and it is the reason the menu can promise a 70 C plate on a 120 guest wedding without a chef on the pass.
The menu ends where the kitchen begins, and the next decision is which of the 10 dishes carries your event. The 12 oven-ready trays, the 10 kg bulk line, and the 20 warmers are the same kit on every order, and the 2 formats above are the only 2 ways the 10 dishes are portioned.