Venison

Several varieties of deer are raised on farms for use as meat, including the red deer and the smaller fallow deer. Deer meat is typically called venison. An important advantage of farm-raised venison, besides its year-round availability, is that the cook can be assured it is from young, tender animals. In the wild, young animals less than two years old are likely to have tender meat, but the meat rapidly becomes tough as the animal matures and ages. The tradition of marinating game for several days in strong wine marinades originates, in large part, from efforts to tenderize hunted game enough to make it palatable.