Game
Game Pie
Diced venison or mixed game braised slowly with smoked bacon, shallots, mushrooms, thyme, red wine and stock until tender, then baked under a golden puff-pastry lid.
- Serves 6
- Hands-on 45 min
- Braise 1½–2 hours, bake 35 min
- Filling best made a day ahead
- Oven 200°C (fan 180°C) for the pastry
- British
Method
Heat the oven to 160°C (fan 140°C, gas 3). Toss the game (900 g) in the flour (2 tbsp) with some salt and pepper.
Heat 2 tbsp of the oil (3 tbsp) in a flameproof casserole and brown the meat in batches over a high heat, adding more oil as needed. Lift on to a plate.
Lower the heat, add the bacon (150 g) and fry for 3 minutes, then add the shallots (200 g), celery (2) and carrot (1 carrot) and cook for 8 minutes, until golden. Add the garlic (2 cloves) and mushrooms (250 g) and cook for 5 minutes more.
Stir in the tomato purée (1 tbsp), then pour in the wine (250 ml) and bubble for 2 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the stock (400 ml), thyme (a little) and bay (2 bay leaves), return the meat and bring to a simmer.
Cover and cook in the oven for 1½–2 hours, until the meat is tender. The sauce should be thick enough to coat a spoon; if not, simmer it on the hob with the lid off. Remove the herbs, season and leave to cool completely (overnight in the fridge is best).
Heat the oven to 200°C (fan 180°C, gas 6). Spoon the filling into a 1.5-litre pie dish. Roll out the pastry (375 g) a little larger than the dish, brush the rim of the dish with water and lay the pastry over. Trim, press the edges to seal and crimp.
Brush with the egg yolk (1 egg yolk), cut a small steam hole in the centre and bake for 30–35 minutes, until the pastry is risen and deep golden and the filling is bubbling hot. Rest for 5 minutes before serving with mash and greens.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
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See also
Chef’s notes
- A cold filling is essential: hot filling melts the butter in the puff pastry before it can rise.
- Butchers and game dealers sell packs of mixed diced game in season (roughly October to February). Venison alone works all year.
- For a richer sauce, replace 100 ml of the wine with port or Madeira, as Matt Tebbutt does.
- Shortcrust pastry also works: line the dish as well as covering it, and bake for 40–45 minutes.
How this recipe was developed
We compared Gordon Ramsay’s hot game pie on BBC Good Food with Matt Tebbutt’s easy game pie on BBC Food. Neither has many ratings, so this pie is checked against our own Venison Stew as well.
- Mixed diced game. Matt Tebbutt (BBC Food, 3.5/5 from 2 ratings) uses 1 kg of diced mixed game braised with celery, mushrooms, Madeira, red wine, port and beef stock; we keep the method with red wine and stock.
- Bacon, shallots, mushrooms. Gordon Ramsay (BBC Good Food, 4.65/5 from 9 ratings) adds pancetta, shallots and mushrooms; we include all three.
- Puff-pastry lid. Ramsay tops his pie with puff pastry glazed with egg yolk; Tebbutt uses shortcrust. We use puff and give shortcrust in the notes.
- Make ahead. We cool the filling before baking so the pastry rises properly.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 1 November 2026):
- BBC Good Food (Gordon Ramsay): Hot game pie (4.65/5, 9 ratings)
- BBC Food (Matt Tebbutt): Easy game pie (3.5/5, 2 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.