Venison may be salted (corned), but it absorbs salt faster than many meats, making it difficult to freshen the corned meat enough to have a tasty product after cooking. It may be slightly salted and smoked, but the resultant product is not very satisfactory, except from a nutritional standpoint. Meat treated in this manner will not keep as well as by other methods. The primitive method of drying results in a leather- like product which will keep for a long time, but is only good for soups and stews.

Venison is at its best as steak, and, like all steaks, is best when broiled. Grill or pan-broil, whichever is the more convenient, and it will be good unless overcooked. Pieces which are not suitable for steaks should be used as pot roast to obtain the best in flavor and texture. As a roast, I find that venison is a little too dry for my taste unless it is undercooked. The meat has little fat in the tissues and none of the marbling that we find in good beef so that roasting has a tendency to dry it out.

Roast venison should be accompanied by a tart sauce or jelly. Cranberries are ideal for this, but individual taste should indicate the sauce or jelly to be used. Boiling is the poorest method of cooking any meat and unless all of the juices, together with the meat, are used to make a stew, boiled venison is nothing but a mess of fibers?filling but not tasty.

The tougher cuts of venison may be ground and used as hamburger. I prefer to do this -rather than to boil them, and perhaps others might prefer the hamburger to a pot roast. The addition of a small amount of beef suet to the ground venison will improve the hamburger without destroying the flavor. By combining one-third ground venison and two-thirds pork trimmings and seasonings, we can have a sausage which is delicious, although it is not a whole venison product.

I mentioned that venison needs no disguising sauces in order to be good, but I sometimes treat some of the tougher cuts with tomato catsup. I cut the meat into bite-size pieces, pan-broil until nearly cooked, cover with diluted catsup (about half and half, water and cat- sup), cover and let simmer for not less than half an hour or until tender, adding water as necessary. If you should ever try this dish, it might be a good idea to double the estimated amount necessary for your family, as second helpings are almost a certainty.

Venison, no matter how cooked, is a good food, and the better the carcass is taken care of, the better tasting it will be, so when you kill your next deer, try to treat the meat in as fine a manner as possible so that you may spread the enjoyment of your hunting trip over a longer period of time.

Kill the deer as quickly and cleanly as possible. Remove the viscera as soon as possible. Keep the carcass off the ground and, if there are flies around, keep it covered. While transporting a deer to your home, try to keep it away from the heat of the motor and from the heat of the sun.

As soon as you arrive at your home/skin the deer and care for the meat. Keep it cool and if any is to be preserved, do this as soon as possible. If you do these things, surely you will have a deer that will have no disagreeable taste or odor, and not a piece of carrion which must be hauled away and buried.