You may judge of the age of venison by looking at the hoof, which is always left on the leg. The deer is young if the cleft of the hoof is small and smooth; but large and rough, if he is old. Buck venison is considered better than the meat of the doe. The haunch, or hind-quarter, is the best part, and the fat upon it should, be thick and white. The shoulder, or fore-quarter, is the next best piece. The saddle comprises both hind-quarters; and these, for a large company, are always cooked together.

To eat venison in perfection, it should be killed when the deer can find plenty of fresh food in the forest, and when they have fattened on the abundance of wild berries, which they can obtain during the autumn. In winter, they are brought into the cities, lean, hard, dry, and black, and the meat infested all through with small threadlike white worms; showing that decomposition has commenced, and requiring the disguise of spices, wine, currant jelly, &c., to render it eatable, not wholesome, for every sort of food in the slightest degree tainted is utterly injurious to health, and cannot often be eaten with impunity.

It never was very fashionable, in America, to eat spoiled victuals, and it is now less so than ever. Fortunately, in our land of abundance, "we do not see the necessity".

HAUNCH OF VENISON.—

To prepare a haunch of venison for roasting (we will suppose it to be perfectly good and well kept,) wipe it thoroughly all over with clean cloths, dipped in lukewarm water, and then go over it with clean dry cloths. Trim off all unsightly parts. Lay over the fat a large sheet of thick brown paper, well buttered, and securely tied on with twine. Or else make a coarse paste of brown meal, and cover it with that. Place it before a good steady fire, and let it roast from three to four hours, according to its size. After roasting well for three hours, remove the covering of paper or paste, and baste the meat well all over; first with dripping or butter, and then with its own gravy, dredging it very slightly with browned flour. Skim the fat off the gravy, and send the venison to table plain, with sweet sauce of black currant jelly, or raspberry jam, in a glass dish with a spoon in it.

VENISON STEAKS, BROILED.—

Cut the steaks not quite an inch thick. Trim them nicely, and season them with a little black pepper and salt. Have ready, over a bed of clear bright hot coals from a wood fire, a gridiron with grooved bars to catch the gravy. Put down the steaks, and when one side is quite done turn the other, and broil that. Venison should always be very thoroughly done. Before you take up the steaks, lay a bit of nice fresh butter upon each. Take them up on a hot dish, and keep them warm. Pour off the gravy into a small saucepan. Give it a boil over the fire, and skim off all the fat from the surface. Stir into it some nice wine, and serve up with the steaks a deep dish of cranberry, or peach sauce, or a large cup of grape jelly.

STEWED VENISON STEAKS.—

Take some fine steaks of freshly killed venison. Cut them from the upper part of the leg. Make a forcemeat, or stuffing, with bread soaked in milk, mixed with fresh butter, with chopped sweet marjoram and sweet basil; or some boiled onions, minced small, and mixed with chopped sage, which may be boiled with the onion, and seasoned with a very little salt and pepper. Spread the stuffing thickly over the inside of the steaks. Then roll them up, and tie them round with packthread, or secure them at the ends with wooden skewers. Put the steaks into a stewpan with some fresh butter or lard, or some drippings that have been left of roast venison—the day before. Let them stew (keeping the pan covered) till thoroughly done. Then dish them with the gravy round them. Serve up with them a sauce of stewed cranberries, or stewed dried peaches.

You may stew lamb or mutton cutlets in the same manner, but do not use mutton dripping. Water (a very small quantity) is best for them. Veal cutlets may be stewed exactly like venison.

HASHED VENISON.—

Take the remains of cold roast venison, from which sufficient gravy or dripping has been saved to cook the meat again, without any water at all. It would be well if this were done in all hashes made from cold meat. For want of drippings, use butter or lard. Cold meat stewed in water is weak and unpalatable.

Two or three large spoonfuls of mushroom, or tomato catchup, are improvements to all hashes. If nothing better can be obtained use onions, always previously boiled to render them less strong.

Minced sweet herbs are excellent seasoning for hashes. Also minced tarragon leaves; they give a peculiar flavor that is very generally liked. Fresh tarragon is in season in July, August, and September.

French mustard (to be obtained at all the best grocery stores) is a great improvement to hashes and stews. Stir in at the last, one or two large table-spoonfuls. The chief ingredient of French mustard is tarragon.

A FINE VENISON PIE.—

Cut steaks from a loin or haunch of venison, which should be as freshly killed as you can get it. The strange and absurd prejudice in favor of hard black-looking venison, (that has been kept till the juices are all dried up,) is fast subsiding; and no one now eats any sort of food in which decomposition has commenced. Those who have eaten venison fresh from the forest, when the deer have fattened on wild grapes, huckleberries, blackberries, cranberries, &c., will never again be able to relish such as is brought in wagon loads to the Atlantic cities, and which has been kept till full of those fine threads that are in reality long thin whitish worms, and which are often seen in very old hams.

Having removed the bones and cut the meat into steaks, and seasoned it with salt and pepper, put the venison into a pot, with merely as much water as will cover it well. Let it stew till perfectly tender, skimming it occasionally. Then take it out, and set it to cool, saving the gravy in a bowl. Make a nice puff paste; divide the paste into two equal portions, and roll it out rather thick. Butter a deep dish, and line it with one of the sheets of paste, rolled thin at the bottom. Then put in the stewed venison. Season the gravy with a glass of very good wine, (either port or sherry,) a few blades of mace, and a powdered nutmeg. Stir into it the crumbled yolks of some hard-boiled eggs. Pour the gravy over the meat, and put on the other sheet of paste, as the lid of the pie. Bring the two edges close together, so as to unite evenly, and notch them handsomely. Set it immediately into the oven, and bake it well. If a steady heat is kept up, it will be done in an hour. Send it to table hot.

Instead of wine, you may put into the gravy half a pint of black currant jelly, which, for venison, is thought preferable to red. Either will do.

Any sort of game, partridges, pheasants, grouse, wild ducks, &c., may be made into a fine pie, exactly as above.

VERY PLAIN VENISON PIE.—

Cut from the bone some good pieces of fine fresh venison, season them slightly with salt and pepper, and put them into a pot with plenty of potatos, (either sweet or white,) split and quartered, and only as much water as will cover the whole. Set it over the fire, cover it, and let it stew slowly and steadily, till all is tender, skimming it several times. Meanwhile, make a nice paste of flour shortened with cold gravy, or drippings saved from roast venison, or of nice lard. Allow half a pint of shortening to each quart of flour. Put the flour into a pan, and rub the shortening into it as quickly as possible, adding a very little cold water, to make it into a lump of paste. Then roll it out into a sheet, and spread over it with a broad knife the remaining half of the shortening. Dredge lightly with flour, fold it up, and roll it out in two sheets. With one of them line your pie-dish, and put into it the stewed venison and potatos. Pour in the gravy of the stew. The filling of this pie should be piled high in the centre. Lay on, as a lid, the other sheet of paste, which should be rather the largest. Pare off smoothly the edges of the two crusts, and crimp them nicely. Set the pie in the oven, and bake it well. It may be eaten either hot or cold, but is best hot.

The above quantity of paste is only sufficient for a very small pie. For one of moderate size allow two quarts of flour, and a pound of shortening.

VENISON POT-PIE.—

Remove the bone from some fine venison steaks, cut near an inch thick. Season them lightly with pepper and salt, and score them each in several places. Stew them in a very little water till tender. Have ready an ample portion of nice suet paste. If you cannot obtain beef suet use cold venison fat, minced fine and made into a paste with double its quantity in flour, and as little water as possible. Lay some stewed venison at the bottom of the pot, and line the sides with paste almost up to the top. Put in the meat, adding among it boiled sweet potatos cut into pieces, or (if they are to be had in plenty,) chestnuts, boiled and peeled. Mushrooms will be a great improvement. Onion also, (if liked,) boiled and cut up. Intersperse the whole with square pieces of paste. Fill the pot almost to the top with the meat and other ingredients. Lay a thick paste over the whole, cut round to fit, but not too closely. Pour in a pint of warm water to increase the gravy. Make a cross slit in the middle of the upper crust. Cook the pie till all is well done. Serve it up with the brown crust in pieces, and laid on the top.

This pie, if well made, and with plenty of paste, will be thought excellent whenever fresh venison is to be had.

VENISON HAM.—

Take fine freshly-killed venison. Mix together an ounce of saltpetre, a pound of coarse brown sugar, and a pound of salt. Let them be very thoroughly mixed and pounded. Rub this well into the meat, and continue rubbing hard till it froths. Keep the meat in the pickle for two weeks, turning it every day. Then take it out, and roll it in saw-dust, (which, on no account, must be the saw-dust of any species of pine.) Hang it for two weeks longer in the smoke of oak wood or of corn cobs. All hams, when being smoked, must be hung very high, and have the large end downwards. If hung too low, the heat softens or melts the fat.

Venison hams, if well cured, require no boiling. They are always eaten chipped or shaved like smoked beef, to which they are very superior. It may be stewed in a skillet with fresh butter and beaten egg, and cut into thin shavings, or very thin small slices—or, instead of butter, with the drippings of cold roast venison. Season with pepper only.

RABBITS.—

Rabbits should be young and tender, but full-grown and fat. Two are required to make a dish. One rabbit, except for an invalid, is scarcely worth the trouble of cooking; and, being naturally insipid, it must have certain seasoning to make it taste well. The hare, so much prized in England, owes its reputation entirely to their mode of dressing it, which is troublesome, expensive, and in our country would never become popular, unless the animal had in itself more to recommend it. With all that can be done for a hare, it is, when cooked, black, dry, hard; and if it has been kept long enough to acquire what they call the "true game flavor," so much the worse. A fine fat well-fed tame rabbit is much better. In Virginia, the negroes frequently call a large rabbit "a hare"—or rather "a yar;" and though they know it to be young, they generally term it "that old yar." We opine that with them "yars" are not admired. If a rabbit is really old his ears are tough, and his claws blunt and rough with coarse hairs growing between them. A young rabbit has short sharp claws, and ears so tender that on trying you can easily tear them. Rabbits should be cooked the day they are killed. Always cut off the head. A rabbit dished whole, with its head on, is, to most persons, a disgusting sight. The head of no small animal is worth eating, and always looks disagreeable when cooked.

The livers of rabbits should be added to the gravy.

ROASTED RABBITS.—

Take a pair of fine well-fed young rabbits, and having drawn or emptied them, lay them, for about ten minutes, in a pan of warm water. Then dry them inside with a clean cloth, carefully wiping them out. Truss them short, and neatly, having removed the heads. Line the inside with very thin slices of fat bacon that has had most of the salt soaked out. Make a plentiful stuffing or forcemeat of bread steeped in milk, some fresh butter mixed with a very little flour; or, instead of butter, some beef suet finely minced; some chopped sweet herbs; and some crumbled yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Season with mace and nutmeg, and grated lemon rind. Fill the rabbits well with this—or, you may stuff them entirely with boiled potatos, mashed with plenty of nice butter, or the drippings of roast veal or pork. Or (if liked) you may make the stuffing entirely of minced onion, (previously boiled,) and minced sage leaves, moistened with a very little lard or sweet oil, and seasoned with powdered mace, nutmeg, and pepper. Having put in plenty of stuffing, sew up the bodies of the rabbits, flour them well, and put them on the spit and set them before a clear fire. Baste them with milk, or with fresh butter, tied up in thin muslin. They will be done in an hour or more. Thicken the gravy with flour, and pour it over them in the dish. Roasted rabbits make a good second dish at a small dinner. Take the livers of the rabbits, and chop them, to put into the gravy.

RABBITS WITH ONIONS.—

Peel, boil, and slice six (or more) large onions, and season them with nutmeg, and a very little cayenne. Cover them, and set them aside till wanted. Cut two fine rabbits into pieces, and fry them in fresh butter or lard. When browned, and nearly done, cover them with the sliced onions, and brown them, having laid among them some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour. Dish the rabbits, with the pieces entirely hidden under the onions.

A plainer, and not so good a way, is to put the pieces of rabbit, and the sliced onions, into a stew-pan with a little water, and stew the whole together.

RABBIT POT-PIE.—

Cut up the rabbits, and stew them in a little water. When nearly done, put the pieces into a pot and intersperse them with bits of cold ham. Add the gravy left from the stew. Season with pepper and mace. Have ready sufficient paste, (made with minced suet, and rather more than twice its quantity of flour.) There must be enough of paste to line the sides of the pot all round, nearly up to the top, and enough to make a thick lid, besides having plenty of extra pieces to lay among the other contents. Also have ready a few onions boiled and sliced. Cover the pie with the lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a cross slit in the top, and pour in a little water. When done, serve all up on one large dish.

This pie will be much improved by stewing with the rabbits a fresh beef steak. A beef steak in any pot-pie thickens and enriches the gravy.

PULLED RABBITS.—

Boil, very tender, a fine pair of nice young rabbits. When cold, cut them in pieces as for carving, and peel off the skin. Then with a fork pull all the meat from the bones, first loosening it with a knife. Put it into a stew-pan with plenty of cream, or some bits of fresh butter rolled in flour; some minced sweet herbs, some grated fresh lemon rind, and some hard-boiled yolks of eggs crumbled. Season with cayenne and nutmeg. Cover it, and let it simmer till it comes to a boil. Then immediately take it off the fire, and transfer it to a deep dish. Serve it up hot. This is a side dish at dinner.

FRICASSEED RABBITS.—

Cut up the rabbits as for carving, and go over every piece with lard or sweet oil. Lay them in a frying pan, and fry them in nice fresh butter. If you cannot procure this, use lard. Season them with a very little salt and cayenne, dredge them well with flour, and sprinkle them thickly with parsley, or sweet marjoram. When they are fried brown, take them up. Keep them warm in a heated dish with a cover. Skim the gravy that remains in the pan, and add to it some cream, or rich milk thickened with flour, enriched with the beaten yolk of an egg, and flavored with nutmeg.

Rabbits may be cut up, and fried in batter made of bread-crumbs and beaten egg. Dip every piece of rabbit twice into the batter.

A COATED HARE, OR LARGE RABBIT.—

The hare, or rabbit, should be large and fat. Save the liver and heart to assist in the gravy, which ought to be made of some pieces of the lean of good fresh beef, seasoned with pepper, salt, and nutmeg, stewed in a small sauce-pan, till all the essence is extracted, adding the chopped liver and heart, and a bit of fresh butter, rolled in flour. Cold fresh meat, or meat that has to be recooked, is unfit for gravy, and so it is for soup. Line the inside of the hare with small thin slices of fat ham, or bacon, and then fill the cavity with a stuffing made of grated bread-crumbs, the grated yellow rind and juice of a lemon, or orange, a piece of fresh butter, some minced sweet marjoram, and the crumbled yolk of one or two hard-boiled eggs. Season the stuffing with a little pepper and salt, and some powdered nutmeg and mace. Fill the body of the hare with this mixture, and sew it up, to keep in the stuffing. Spit the hare, and roast it well, keeping it for a while at a moderate distance from the fire. To baste it, while roasting, make a dressing of the beaten yolks of four eggs, four spoonfuls of flour, a pint of milk, and three table-spoonfuls of salad oil, all well-beaten together. Baste the hare with this till it is thickly coated all over with the batter, taking care it does not burn. Send the gravy to table in a sauce-boat, accompanied by currant, or cranberry jelly.

A very young fawn, or a kid, may be drest in a similar manner. Kids are not eaten after three months old. Till that age their meat is white and delicate. Their flesh, after that time, gradually becomes coarse and dark-colored. A very young kid, before it is weaned, is very delicious; but no longer. In the oriental countries, young kids are stuffed with chopped raisins and almonds, or pistachio nuts, previous to roasting; and basted with rich milk, or cream.

For sauce to a kid or fawn, use orange marmalade, or grape jelly.