Always bring meat to room temperature before cooking. Use cooking times and temperatures as a guide rather than a fact. Although venison is cooked in roughly the same manner as beef it does not have the same coating of fat or the inner marbling to keep it moist. Rather than a roasting table, we suggest that you aim for something slightly pink in the middle and without the initial high heat sizzle. 200C/Gas 6 for 35 to 40 minutes per kilo should do it.

Use a meat thermometer for complete accuracy; a method far more popular in the domestic kitchen than you may think. Aim for a core temperature of between 55C and 65C. Obviously the lower the temperature the pinker the meat. Bang in the middle at 60C will give you medium where the juices run clear but the meat is moist. Resting is essential. For all concerned. Left for half an hour the juices redistribute and the fibres relax; easy to carve tender to eat. Don’t worry about it going cold; it will keep itself warm and be all the better for it.