Possible Clues:

• Like slightly spoiled meat
• Plucky
• Strong-tasting, as meat
• No longer fresh, as venison
• High marks with bright housing
• Like slightly tainted meat
• Gary's outside clutching a side of meat like venison
• Like squirrel meat, some say
• On the tainted side
• 'His language, wherethrough ran, / The -- flavor of the bookless man' (Robert Lowell, Fitz Adams' Story)