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No longer the sole preserve of hunters and their friends, game meat is now more widely available than ever. An increased demand for naturally raised animals has boosted game farming and, in turn, broadened the market for this delicious, healthy meat. Hunters still test their skills in the wild, but the quality of their legally bagged game varies widely Farmed game, on the other hand, is carefully controlled. The result is meat of consistent quality that makes life easier for the cook.

So why isn’t this low-fat, low-cholesterol meat on all our tables? What often deters people from eating game is fear of a gamey taste. However, the flavor of today’s farm-raised game and game raised on private preserves is often quite different from that of wild game. The flavor of farm-raised venison, for example, is much milder, closer to beef. I happen to like the livery, gamey accent of animals that forage in a natural environment—it’s the reason I eat game—so I look for suppliers who sell free-range game. The animal’s diet is one major influence on how it tastes. The aging of game meat is also important, making a good butcher or supplier indispensable. With its range of flavors, today you can certainly buy game that suits your taste.

Game is divided into two main categories, feathered and furred. Feathered game is covered in the poultry chapter. This chapter concentrates on furred game and wild boar. American buffalo, more correctly bison, is often classed as game, but it is so similar to beef that it is can be used in any beef recipe, and I include it the beef and veal chapter.

“As fast as his bones would carry him” means to run as fast as possible.

Larger game animals, such as venison, are butchered like veal and lamb so the cuts are familiar. Rack and leg of venison are impressive pieces of meat, but many less glamorous cuts are overlooked. Ribs, shoulder, shank, and neck are all delicious. When these are cooked slowly, their rich flavor is released and their meat becomes meltingly succulent, while their bones enrich the sauce. Cooking game is no more difficult than cooking any other meat if you remember one important thing—its lack of fat. This lean meat really needs its bones to keep it moist and tender. The addition of some fat, from a marinade, by wrapping it in fat to protect and baste it while it cooks, or by adding a fat like bacon helps too. Game bones make excellent stock that provides the base for soups and great sauces to accompany the meat.

“To be upon the bones of” means to attack.

“Soaked to the bone” is to be completely wet right through.

Once you understand where the animal’s bones and the meat attached to them are located, you will be able to cook any game cut.

Venison

Venison is the general term for deer meat. The deer family is large and the names often vary from region to region. Among its members are red deer, reindeer, caribou, antelope, elk or wapiti, and moose; farmed venison is typically deer or elk. Despite their range in size, all these animals have the same bone structure. The cuts of meat are the same too, varying only in size, with smaller animals yielding cuts similar to those from lamb and larger ones closer to veal and beef.

The funny bone, also called the crazy bone, is that part of the elbow where the ulnar nerve is found. It can refer to one’s sense of humor.

“Skin and bones” or a “bag of bones” refers to someone who is very skinny or painfully thin.

The Front End

The front leg, or shoulder, has the shank removed (see “The Extremities”) during butchering. Depending on the size of the animal, the leg is sold whole or cut into two pieces. Because the meat in this section consists of several muscles supported by a complicated bone structure, too often this cut is either overlooked or sold boned, but braising is an ideal method for cooking this bone-in cut.

The expression “close or near to the bone” has a variety of meanings; it can describe a tactless or offensive remark, or describe someone who is hard up or living on the edge of destitution.

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