How to Make Delicious Wild Game Sausage Rolls

by Sarah - Craft Invaders

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

I believe that cooking is one of the most important life skills that you can pass on to your children, I also believe that kids are much more receptive to trying new foods when they have been involved in it’s preparation. The purpose of this bake was to show the kids how you can adapt a recipe and add to it, as well, of course, to try and get something new into them, in a manner that would seem familiar. Game is in season here in the UK, and consequently is inexpensive compared to other meats. The DIY pheasants above that I photographed outside our local farm shop last week, were priced at £1 per brace, which should dispel any myths that game is only accessible to the wealthy. Anyone who has had a good look around our blog will know that I am a great believer in including wild food in our diet. Game is natural, free range and since it’s wild, the animal is not being exposed to medications or antibiotics. Likewise, it’s diet is not forced or prescribed – the animals just eat what is available in nature. Research has suggested that there are real health benefits to eating game. Venison is high in protein, low in saturated fatty acids and contains higher levels of iron than any other red meat. Pheasant and partridge also contain a high level of iron, protein, vitamin B(6) and selenium, which has been linked scientifically to improvements in mood and the alleviation of feelings of depression, and also helps to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals.

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

For our Hunter’s rolls we used a mix of game (venison, pheasant and rabbit) and the same quantity of sausage meat, we also used ready made puff pastry.  We diced all the game into small pieces and split it between 2 bowls. We mixed half of the sausage meat into one batch of the game and used to make a simple game sausage roll.

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

To our second bowl of diced game we wanted to add a little extra flavour. First we marinaded our meat for an hour in a couple of teaspoons of our Christmas Extract. We also added a handful of dried cranberries to the mix. We then added the remaining sausage meat and mixed it well.

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

The kids then simply rolled out the puff pastry into a long rectangle. Using prepared puff pastry is lazy, but convenient. If you were to make these using home-made shortcrust or puff pastry, the results would be even more delicious!

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

Each child was able to make their own batch, since we had two versions of our filling. We used  beaten egg to brush on the edges of the pastry to stick them together, and also to glaze the finished rolls before baking.

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

Finally the kids used a fork to crimp the edges together to ensure they were well sealed, we then we cut our hunter’s sausage rolls up and baked in a medium oven for about 40 mins until they were cooked through.

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

Pairing the game with the sausage meat works really well as game is naturally very lean, so the fat from the pork ensures it remains moist. Cooking the two versions also worked a treat, as our more fussy eater announced that they hated the more elaborate recipe, but agreed to try the simpler one, which in itself was a result. The other child liked both versions, and has been taking them to school for lunch!

Hunter sausage rolls is a great recipe for introducing kids to cooking with wild game meats. Super easy to make, game is great value for money and has high nutritional value.

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18 comments

Debbie November 26, 2016 - 6:55 am

Hi Sarah, so much better than shop bought sausage rolls and tastier too. Showing children how to cook and how to be versatile so everyone enjoys the taste is an excellent thing to do. There’s more chance of fussy eaters to try something different if they feel they have the choice.

xx

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Sarah - Craft Invaders November 27, 2016 - 10:00 am

You are so right Debbie, my kids are much happier trying new things if they cook or grow it themselves – they are the same with foraging too!

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Michelle November 21, 2016 - 5:47 am

Living in South Africa we have a huge variety of game meat to choose from and I must say I’m a big fan. Love the way you’ve got the kids involved in making these sausage rolls and that you used the ready made pastry. That sounds like something I can try do.

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Sarah - Craft Invaders November 23, 2016 - 9:09 am

I’m sure the purists would never buy ready made pastry, but it makes making something like these sausage rolls so quick and easy – they’d probably not have got made if I’d had to make the puff pastry from scratch!

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Emma T February 16, 2016 - 11:30 am

Yum, I’m not a big fan of game on the whole although I do like venison and pheasant. We’ve got some pheasant breasts in the freezer, so I might make some of these.

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Sarah - Craft Invaders February 16, 2016 - 7:59 pm

They are lovely with strips of pheasant in them – it’s a great way to liven up a sausage roll :)

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Gemma Pearce January 20, 2016 - 11:41 am

Look yummy! I wish I knew how to cook from scratch. I’m so scared of trying and ruining good food. Everything is out of a packet or jar apart from bolognaise I make the sauce for that :) I’d love to teach my kids to cook…baking I can do and we make cakes.

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Sarah - Craft Invaders January 20, 2016 - 12:49 pm

If you can cook bolognese and bake you can cook anything, its just have the confidence to try. We did a post on egg and bacon pasta a while back which is a really simple dish to cook with kids – bet you’d find that a doddle if you tried it!

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Charlotte Oates December 16, 2015 - 2:19 pm

I can only assume that the actual game in cheap but paying someone to make it look less like a bird is what costs all the money as it always seems expensive by the time it gets to me! Did you pluck your own pheasants for this?

I love the sound of this, a twist on the usual sausage rolls, and a great idea to add some of your Christmas extract.

P.S. Love your rolling pin!

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Sarah - Craft Invaders December 16, 2015 - 8:13 pm

I bought the game for this as when I went into the farm shop a pair of pheasant breasts where only £2 ready prepared (although I had planned to buy the DIY ones originally) I have tried plucking pheasant a few times and always mess it up so now I just pull the skin and feathers all off in one go – it means you cant roast it, but its so much quicker and easier.

I won the rolling pin in a Laura Ashley competition on twitter with some other goodies – isn’t it gorgeous!

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Eb Gargano December 15, 2015 - 10:33 am

Love these sausage and game rolls! What a great twist on the traditional sausage roll. I totally agree about getting the kids involved in the kitchen. I was helping in the kitchen from about the age of 3 and it kindled a lifelong passion for food and cooking!! I am now enjoying teaching my own kids how to cook and bake. :-)

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Sarah - Craft Invaders December 15, 2015 - 9:51 pm

It’s such a great thing to do with kids, and such an important skill to pass on – I’ll always be grateful to my Mum for teaching me to cook, hopefully my kids will one day teach their own too :)

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Honest mum November 22, 2015 - 9:43 pm

They look tasty. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays

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Sarah - Craft Invaders November 24, 2015 - 2:36 pm

They are yummy, and its great to eat a different type of protein now and again :)

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Claire November 22, 2015 - 3:00 pm

Wow! These look fantastic! I so wish I was more capable of utilising game in my cooking! I became a vegetarian at the age of 5 and despite trying really hard to reintroduce meat into my diet as an adult my body just won’t tollerate it! I’d love for the girls to have more experience of preparing DIY meat. They all eat meat and are very adventurous in their diet but I am sadly lacking the skill;… I wonder if a local butcher might do a preparation workshop or something similar that we could attend? Thankyou so much for sharing this with me on #kidsinthekitchen it’s a great addition to our little linky!

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Sarah - Craft Invaders November 24, 2015 - 2:41 pm

Must be really hard to cook meat if you don’t eat it. I’m sure a butcher would do a class for you, around by us they offer sausage making and game preparation courses. We buy our lamb from a friend who raises it themselves, and have been along to watch it being jointed up at their home for us – I learned loads from the butcher doing it!

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Hayleigh Budgetfoodmummy November 21, 2015 - 9:58 pm

I love this recipe!! I think it’s really important for children to know where their food is actually from, rather than a packet at a supermarket. I was brought up a vegetarian but as a teenager I used to go shooting for game (bit of a change I know!) which really made me a less picky eater!

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Sarah - Craft Invaders November 22, 2015 - 3:01 pm

I totally agree, so many kids nowadays don’t get to see food growing in its natural state. My kids are much happier to try something new if they have seen it in its original state – they hate nothing more than not knowing whats in a dish, but break it down for them and they are pretty curious about the individual ingredients. Vegetarian to Hunter is a bit of a leap lol

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