London pub bags capital’s first grouse of the season
ETM Group pub the Jugged Hare in Moorgate, central London netted grouse at the Swinton Estate in North Yorkshire on 12 August - known as the Glorious 12th - before delivering it from estate to plate in less than 12 hours.
Members of the ETM Group alongside Ben Weatherall from supplier Yorkshire Game, drove the birds down from Yorkshire to the pub in London for chefs to pluck, truss and cook up for a special dinner.
Guests enjoyed a five-course game dinner matched with wine and which featured the Jugged Hare’s eponymous 18th century dish comprising of slow braised hare meat finished with a sauce of its own blood.
The menu featured wild Suffolk roe deer carpaccio, ceps and rosemary; Jugged hare served with truffled potatoes and cabbage; roast breast served with confit leg, bread sauce croquette, liver pate en croute, spiced red cabbage puree, game chips and bullshot jus; baked chocolate fondant with cornflake milk sorbet and blue Monday, bilberry chutney and heather loaf.
The dinner which included wines from the Rhone Valley cost £85 per person.
ETM Group owns 11 pubs and restaurant venues across central London.
Watch the pubs race to catch and serve London’s first grouse of 2014 below
