Read it through once

The “flesh” pies Best referred to would have in England been filled with old chicken, hare, or pigeon meat, tenderized by hours of simmering and then baking. Plymouth, however, had a spectacular substitute: venison. This was the Elizabethan’s chief culinary status symbol, seldom eaten by ordinary farmers but continually craved. Kept in deer parks by the gentry, “... venison in England [was] neither bought nor sold, as in other countries, but maintained only for the pleasure of the owner and his friends.” The five deer donated by Massasoit were a great luxury. Served up in corn-meal venison “pasties,” they gave the feast an aristocratic aura the Plymouth farmers could never have foreseen, not having the guns or skills necessary to bring down a deer regularly. Ironically, venison soon became a symbol to Englishmen of New England’s natural bounty. A more realistic choice would have been the ducks and geese, which they could and did bring down in droves with their fowling pieces.