venison

Deer have been present in Ireland since ancient times, and have been a favorite food for hundreds if not thousands of years (prehistoric sites show that the most ancient Irish ate venison regularly, if not as often as the pork they largely preferred).

Local poets of the first millennium spend a surprising amount of time singing the praises of Irish venison, which they seem to have preferred spit-roasted in times when the grazing was good and the deer were plump. Today, though, venison is valued in Ireland (as elsewhere) for its leanness when compared to many other meats. Most supermarkets across Ireland carry local venison, as deer are plentiful here, both farmed and wild. Phoenix Park in Dublin, the biggest in-city park in Europe, has its own herd of wild deer which have to be culled each season to keep their population from exploding, and their venison disappears from the city's butcher shops as quickly as it turns up.

This recipe's approach to venison deals with the meat's only downside -- its relative dryness -- and pairs it superbly with that most Irish of drinks, stout.