164 
WANTED— A NEW MEAT 
English woods, as is clone on some estates, on its 
merits, and apart from any tricks of cookery, it is 
perhaps the very best land-bird that is available for 
food. The game-flavour is not too pronounced, but 
gives a character to the whole which is altogether 
absent in the tame black turkeys of the farmyard. 
But flesh, and not fowl, is what is mainly desired to 
widen the possibilities of the dinner-table. Fatted 
swans, or peacocks, or American turkeys might be 
increased and multiplied without affording more than an 
occasional relief to the monotony of the menu and the 
brain-searching of housekeepers. What is wanted is 
some new and large animal, whose flesh has a character 
of its own which would readily distinguish it from beef 
or mutton, and an excellence which shall make it 
independent of any special treatment in cooking, — 
something which shall combine the game-flavour with 
the substantial solidity of a leg of mutton. An increase 
in the quantity of venison reared in this country 
naturally suggests itself ; and it is not impossible that, 
in neglecting the produce of our deer-parks, we are 
hardly less careless than in losing sight of the culinary 
possibilities of the swannery. Good doe-venison may 
be bought in the neighbourhood of some large parks 
at a much lower price than mutton ; and the quantity 
of first-class venison which finds its way to London is 
surprisingly little, considering the number of parks 
and private herds in the country. It is objected that 
deer can never pay to fat for food, because the annual 
growth of their horns reduces them so much in 
