310 THE COOKERY OF VENISON 



Only last year we luxuriated in an exquisite rehrucke 

 at one of the best managed of these caravanserais. 

 The meat had been hung ci, point, and the cooking 

 approached perfection, so much so that we were 

 effusive in commendation. The head waiter re- 

 marked complacently that the foresters brought the 

 roe fresh every day, as if they were trout from the 

 Eifel, or salmon from the Rhine, and should pass at a 

 bound from the glade to the platter. So no one, of 

 course, can have tasted venison to advantage in hot 

 climates, for there you must choose between tough- 

 ness and putrefaction. But such abuses in the cooler 

 latitudes of North Germany, and in a kitchen pre- 

 sided over by a chef of pretensions, are unpardonable 

 sins of negligence or ignorance. We may add that 

 the tourist on the Rhine may do worse than wash 

 down the rehrucke with Liebfraumilch or Rauen- 

 thaler. 



Serving the venison is a matter of no little con- 

 sequence, for the fat has the unfortunate defect of 

 congealing with extraordinary celerity. As a rule, 

 eating off gold or silver plate is one of the penalties of 

 ostentatious magnificence, with which the gourmand 

 would willingly dispense. There must always be an 

 unpleasant arriere-pensee of plate-powder lurking in 

 the chasings and stray corners. But with venison, in 



