gravy, thickening of butter and flour.
_Mode_.--Cut the meat from the bones in neat slices, and, if there is
sufficient of its own gravy left, put the meat into this, as it is
preferable to any other. Should there not be enough, put the bones and
trimmings into a stewpan, with about a pint of mutton gravy; let them
stew gently for an hour, and strain the gravy. Put a little flour and
butter into the stewpan, keep stirring until brown, then add the
strained gravy, and give it a boil up; skim and strain again, and, when
a little cool, put in the slices of venison. Place the stewpan by the
side of the fire, and, when on the point of simmering, serve: do not
allow it to boil, or the meat will be hard. Send red-currant jelly to
table with it.
_Time_.--Altogether, 1-1/2 hour.
_Seasonable_.--Buck venison, from June to Michaelmas; doe venison, from
November to the end of January.
_Note_.--A small quantity of Harvey's sauce, ketchup, or port wine, may
be added to enrich the gravy: these ingredients must, however, be used
very sparingly, or they will overpower the flavour of the venison.
[Illustration: FALLOW-DEER (BUCK). FALLOW-DEER (DOE).]
THE FALLOW-DEER.--This is the domestic or park deer; and no two
animals can make a nearer approach to each other than the stag
and it, and yet no two animals keep more distinct, or avoid each
other with a more inveterate animosity. They never herd or
intermix together, and consequently never give rise to an
intermediate race; it is even rare, unless they have been
transported thither, to find fellow-deer in a country where
stags are numerous. He is very easily tamed, and feeds upon many
things which the stag refuses: he also browzes closer than the
stag, and preserves his venison better. The doe produces one
fawn, sometimes two, but rarely three. In short, they resemble
the stag in all his natural habits, and the greatest difference
between them is the duration of their lives: the stag, it is
said, lives to the age of thirty-five or forty years, and the
fallow-deer does not live more than twenty. As they are smaller
than the stag, it is probable that their growth is sooner
completed.
STEWED VENISON.