Lets talk Venison

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RC0032

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Im not a hunter but I received a nice venison steak from a friend last night and wanted any input HBT might have on ways to cook it or what beer would pair well. I know nothing about cooking venison other than he said it was VERY lean and dont over cook it. Now I consider myself a competent cook so post up your recipes :mug:


Im thinking a marinade to help with the gammy flavor?
 
First off, don't try to get rid of the "gamey" flavor! Most venison I've had doesn't have a very gamey taste, it just tastes like very lean beef. I cook my venison the same way I might cook a steak - season with salt and pepper, or maybe some seasoned salt or rub it down with olive oil and garlic and cook it to med-rare. HWMO prefers sauces to simplicity, so I have cooked up red wine sauces for the steaks as well.
 
I did this as a marinade for some venison steaks...yummy.

The marinade is based around and Ancho/Chipotle pepper Puree

To make the Ancho/chipotle Puree:
Soak Chilis in very hot Chicken Stock until they reconstitute (about 15 to 20 minutes).
Allow to cool. Pour mixture into a food processor or blender along with the chipotle peppers and puree until smooth.

(I often make the puree and freeze it in small ziplock bags, then thaw it as needed for a recipe.)

The rest of it...

3 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 medium Onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
6 Ancho Chili Pods, stems and seeds removed
1-2 chipotle peppers with adobe sauce still coating it.
1.5 cups Chicken Stock
1 cup Tomato Puree
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) Cumin
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) Black Pepper
1/8 teaspoon (or to taste) dried Thyme
1 teaspoon (or to taste) Salt
 
The "gamey" flavor is often exaggerated, and also depends on what cut. You say you have a venison "steak". Do you know what cut, exactly, it is? Personally, anything outside of the backstrap (also known as the "tenderloin") / tenderloin (also known as the "fish') needs to either be used as a roast, or as stew meat, or ground as used as hamburger/sausage. I've never had a venison "ny strip", for instance. And this is coming from the guy who kills and butchers them himself, with the wife. :D

So, if you have a tenderloin/backstrap/fish, I would slice them crosswise into 3/4" medallions. Take half a cup of dried cranberries and simmer in 2 cups of water for 3 or 4 minutes. Drain the cranberries, reserving the liquid. Heat some oil in a skillet until it's pretty hot, just below smoke point. Salt and pepper both sides of the medallions. Sear the medallions for no longer than 80 seconds each side, until brown. Put them on a plate and cover with foil; meanwhile, you'll want to make a pan sauce. My favorite is cranberry port, especially this time of year. Add some diced onions or shallots to the hot pan where you'd seared the meat and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add a cup of port and a 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar, and cook until reduced by half. Add a couple cups of chicken broth and the reserved cranberry water and cook until reduced by half again. Mix a couple tablespoons of corn starch with a few tablespoons of water until a paste forms, and add this to the pan. Continue to cook until thickened and glossy; add cranberries, stir, add meat and any juices and stir until warmed. Bam, ready to serve.

If it's not one of those cuts, I would suggest making a slow-roast out of it or, even better, cutting it into stew meat and making venison stew or chili with it. Without the fat, I wouldn't expect the typical grilled steak to be very good.
 
Ohhh chili ....tasty! As for the cut I have no idea. They self butcher and said it was shoulder/back.

Maybe I will freeze it and save it for after Turkey day. Any issues with this?
 
Ohhh chili ....tasty! As for the cut I have no idea. They self butcher and said it was shoulder/back.

Maybe I will freeze it and save it for after Turkey day. Any issues with this?

It's better if you have a foodsaver and you vacuum seal it before freezing, but if not, just get a freezer bag. Shouldn't be any issues as long as you minimize burn. I freeze all mine, but I also foodsave it or, if it comes from the abattoir, it's already vacuum packed.
 
Mmmm... venison chili is so good. Too bad I'm too lazy to go out and drag a deer home :(

I took 3 of those f*ckers last year, in the span of 30 minutes or so. Talk about a pain in the ass...driving around the field, field-dressing each one, then chucking em in the truck, then taking it to the abattoir. But a freezer full of venison for the year is well worth it.
 
Im not a hunter but I received a nice venison steak from a friend last night and wanted any input HBT might have on ways to cook it or what beer would pair well. I know nothing about cooking venison other than he said it was VERY lean and dont over cook it. Now I consider myself a competent cook so post up your recipes :mug:


Im thinking a marinade to help with the gammy flavor?

Here is a great recipe for Southern Style Venison Steaks.

Ingredients:
Venison Steaks
Crispy Southern Style Chicken Frying Mix
Butter Milk
Oil or shortening

First take a meat tenderizing hammer and pound the hell out of your venison steaks with the spiked side of the hammer. If you've got inside tenderloins you don't have to do this, but back strap tenderloins or just about any other cut of venison will benefit from a good pounding you're going to cook it steak style. Pound them till they're about 1/4" thick.

Now put some oil or shortening in a frying pan on medium heat, maybe 1/8" of oil. Don't overheat, don't let the oil start to smoke - medium heat only.

Moisten the steaks in Buttermilk then dip your steaks in the Crispy Southern Style Chicken Frying Mix and then add them to frying pan with the hot oil and cook them to medium brown color, turn them over and cook the other side to color. Don't over cook, it doesn't take long - watch what you're doing.

Now when you got your steaks all cooked, pour off most all of the oil, but save maybe 1-2 spoonfuls and don't pour off the little brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Turn the heat down to low, and you should have about 1 cup of the Crispy Southern Style Chicken Frying Mix left. Put that into the skillet, and then add 1 cup of Buttermilk and 1/2 cup water. Whisk it till its smooth, then turn the heat back up to medium/medium high and bring it to a boil, whisking it all the while its heating. Once it gets to a boil, turn it back down to low.

Serve your venison steaks with gravy, biscuits, and black eyed peas.
 
This reminds me of my one time cooking venison a few years ago. My neighbor at the time was a bow hunter & I'd talked to him about how my BIL was a hunter & I wasn't grossed out by the thought of venison, it was just another meat. I came home one night & on the doorstep was a large styrofoam cooler w/ an entire deer leg in it.

I wasn't sure what I could do, not having cooked venison before, but since the neighborhood fall festival was the next day, w/ a chili cookoff, I decided that was the ticket. I butchered it, doctored it, & entered it in the chili cookoff (I did label it, although it was supposed to be a blind testing-I didn't want my neighbors to hate me,if they were bothered by the idea of a venison chili). Although it didn't win top honors, it scored very high, & I utilized the whole leg...it was a very good chili!

Now, I'm waiting for another unexpected gift of venison (none of my new neighbors are hunters) to arrive...
 
My brother and sister and I were raised on venison practically.

We ate venison probably 4-5 nights a week. Ortega Taco Kit with ground venison - TacDoes! Chef BoyArDee Boxed Pizza kit with ground deer burger - Deer Pizza! Deer Burger Helper, etc... pretty much any recipe that calls for ground beef ( except hamburgers ) will turn out better and lower fat if you make it with ground venison.

Venison is super good for you. Think of all that organic free-range meat that people pay extra money for and then realize that venison is the original free range meat. Its very lean, doesn't have any anti-biotics or hormones added to it.

The only thing is, its really not "cheap". You'd think it would be less expensive, and for some folks maybe it is. I feed my family on venison too because I like to hunt deer, but every year I've put the costs down.... guns, ammo, gas for the pickup, diesel for the tractor, rent for the farm, hunting club dues, seed for food plots, deer feed, fertilizer, tree stands, game cameras, etc... If I quit deer hunting we could eat lobster and filet mignon every night - lol
 
Yes, but for people who hunt, these are just added in costs-you would have guns, ammo, etc, anyway-my BIL goes out to CO & up to WV every year to hunt, as an extra-he doesn't hunt for meat (my sister doesn't really like venison all that much), so he donates it to a food bank. It's a hobby/recreational activity, & he enjoys it, I agree that it's not cheap, but neither is homebrewing....
 
That is true, its a hobby like brewing and I'd do it no matter what the cost.

Anyway, getting back on the subject of recipes...

Here is the deer recipe I'm cooking today. This recipe is because deer shoulders are kind of time consuming to process, and they're one of the more tougher parts of the deer, so rather than spend the extra time to process and package deer shoulders - we just roast em whole.

Very simple recipe.

Ingredients:
1 whole deer shoulder
butt rub, cajun season, etc... whatever you like to dry rub meat with
bottle of BBQ sauce

Instructions:
Get up early, and rub the deer shoulder with whatever dry season you like. Butt rub, Garlic & Onion powder, Cajun Seasoning, etc... Today I'm using some crap I found in the cabinet I've never tried before - I think we brought it home for free from somewhere - dry BBQ rub or something like that. Rub it all over both sides of the shoulder.

Now put the shoulder on a roasting pan, and put some water in the bottom of the pan, and put the pan in the oven and turn it on 300F, and leave it all day. Check it every couple of hours and put another cup of water in there from time to time so it stays moist. Do this early in the morning.

Now an hour or so before you're ready to eat dinner, pull it out and pour a bottle of BBQ sauce over it and put it back in.

You basically just leave it in the oven on low all day, and the meat will be falling off the bones and delicious by supper time.
 
Reminds me of the joke about the hunter who brought home venison. Only thing is his two kids never had any.

So the wife prepares a venison meal that night.

When they're eating the father says it's not steak, but something your mother calls me every once in a while...(meaning "dear"...).

Quickly, the daughter yells to her brother "QUICK, spit it out...it's an A$$HOLE!!! :D:D:D:D
 
Another great way to do a venison backstrap is to butterfly it and stuff it with sausage, wrap it with a few pieces of bacon, season with your favorite dry rub, and smoke for a few hours. All of the fat in the sausage/bacon will keep it from drying out while it gets a great smoky flavor.

I made this last year and my friend (who lives off of venison and gave me the meat) said it was the best venison he had ever eaten. Very tender and flavorful.
 
Another great way to do a venison backstrap is to butterfly it and stuff it with sausage, wrap it with a few pieces of bacon, season with your favorite dry rub, and smoke for a few hours. All of the fat in the sausage/bacon will keep it from drying out while it gets a great smoky flavor.

I...

I think I love you...
 
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