Game Animals and Birds
Wild animals — sometimes called game or
venison — have always been especially prized
in the autumn, when they fatten themselves
for the coming winter. While the autumn
game season is still celebrated in many
European restaurants with wild duck, hare,
pheasant, partridge, deer, and boar, in the
United States wild meats are banned from
commerce (only inspected meat can be sold
legally, and hunted meat is not inspected).
Most “game” meats available to the U.S.
consumer these days come from animals
raised on farms and ranches. They’re perhaps
better described as “semi-domestic” meats.
Some of these animals have been raised in
captivity since Roman times, but haven’t been
as intensively bred as the domesticated
animals, and so are still much like their wild
counterparts.