From
Mrs. Beetons Household Management
Roast Venison
INGREDIENTS.—Venison,
coarse flour-and-water paste, a little flour.
Mode.—Choose
a haunch with clear, bright, and thick fat, and the cleft of the hoof smooth
and close; the greater quantity of fat there is, the better quality will the
meat be. As many people object to venison when it has too much haut goût,
ascertain how long it has been kept, by running a sharp skewer into the meat
close to the bone; when this is withdrawn, its sweetness can be judged of. With
care and attention, it will keep good a fortnight, unless the weather is very
mild. Keep it perfectly dry by wiping it with clean cloths till not the least
damp remains, and sprinkle over powdered ginger or pepper, as a preventative
against the fly. When required for use, wash it in warm water, and dry it well
with a cloth; butter a sheet of white paper, put it over the fat, lay a coarse
paste, about 1/2 inch in thickness, over this, and then a sheet or two of
strong paper. Tie the whole firmly on to the haunch with twine, and put the
joint down to a strong close fire; baste the venison immediately, to prevent
the paper and string from burning, and continue this operation, without
intermission, the whole of the time it is cooking. About 20 minutes before it
is done, carefully remove the paste and paper, dredge the joint with flour, and
baste well with butter until it is nicely frothed, and of a nice pale-brown
colour; garnish the knuckle-bone with a frill of white paper, and serve with a
good, strong, but unflavoured gravy, in a tureen, and currant jelly; or melt
the jelly with a little port wine, and serve that also in a tureen. As the
principal object in roasting venison is to preserve the fat, the above is the
best mode of doing so where expense is not objected to; but, in ordinary cases,
the paste may be dispensed with, and a double paper placed over the roast instead:
it will not require so long cooking without the paste. Do not omit to send very
hot plates to table, as the venison fat so soon freezes: to be thoroughly
enjoyed by epicures, it should be eaten on hot-water plates. The neck and
shoulder may be roasted in the same manner.
Time.—A
large haunch of buck venison, with the paste, 4 to 5 hours; haunch of doe
venison, 3-1/4 to 3-3/4 hours. Allow less time without the paste.
Average
cost, 1s. 4d. to 1s. 6d. per lb.
Sufficient
for 18 persons.
Seasonable.—Buck
venison in greatest perfection from June to Michaelmas; doe venison from
November to the end of January.
THE
DEER.—This
active tribe of animals principally inhabit wild and woody regions. In their
contentions, both with each other and the rest of the brute creation, these
animals not only use their horns, but strike very furiously with their fore
feet. Some of the species are employed as beasts of draught, whilst the flesh
of the whole is wholesome, and that of some of the kinds, under the name of
"venison," is considered very delicious. Persons fond of hunting have
invented peculiar terms by which the objects of their pursuit are
characterized: thus the stag is called, the first year, a calf, or hind-calf;
the second, a knobber; the third, a brock; the fourth, a staggard; the fifth, a
stag; and the sixth, a hart. The female is, the first year, called a calf; the
second, a hearse; and the third, a hind. In Britain, the stag has become
scarcer than it formerly was; but, in the Highlands of Scotland, herds of four
or five hundred may still be seen, ranging over the vast mountains of the
north; and some of the stags of a great size. In former times, the great feudal
chieftains used to hunt with all the pomp of eastern sovereigns, assembling
some thousands of their clans, who drove the deer into the toils, or to such
stations as were occupied by their chiefs. As this sport, however, was
occasionally used as a means for collecting their vassals together for the
purpose of concocting rebellion, an act was passed prohibitory of such
assemblages. In the "Waverley" of Sir Walter Scott, a deer-hunting
scene of this kind is admirably described.
VENISON.—This
is the name given to the flesh of some kinds of deer, and is esteemed as very
delicious. Different species of deer are found in warm as well as cold
climates, and are in several instances invaluable to man. This is especially
the case with the Laplander, whose reindeer constitutes a large proportion of
his wealth. There—
"The reindeer unharness'd in freedom can
play,
And safely
o'er Odin's steep precipice stray,
Whilst the
wolf to the forest recesses may fly,
And howl to
the moon as she glides through the sky."
In that country it is the substitute for the horse, the
cow, the goat, and the sheep. From its milk is produced cheese; from its skin,
clothing; from its tendons, bowstrings and thread; from its horns, glue; from
its bones, spoons; and its flesh furnishes food. In England we have the stag, an
animal of great beauty, and much admired. He is a native of many parts of
Europe, and is supposed to have been originally introduced into this country
from France. About a century back he was to be found wild in some of the rough
and mountainous parts of Wales, as well as in the forests of Exmoor, in
Devonshire, and the woods on the banks of the Tamar. In the middle ages the
deer formed food for the not over abstemious monks, as represented by Friar
Tuck's larder, in the admirable fiction of "Ivanhoe;" and at a later
period it was a deer-stealing adventure that drove the "ingenious"
William Shakspeare to London, to become a common player, and the greatest
dramatist that ever lived.
.jpg)
