It all started with the bushel of fruit I bought over the weekend (I’m well started with my canning/freezing/fruit leathering, thanks for asking). But fall’s bounteous harvest didn’t end there, no siree bob.
Today the dad of one of my students dropped by and gifted me with about 15 pounds of venison:
4lbs ground venison
5 lbs venison sausage (not in casings, flavored with sage, and possibly salted)
2 lbs venison chops
2 lb venison steak, “cubed” like cube steak
I defrosted one of the packages of sausage. Fried it up in chunks with lots of onion and garlic and marinated artichokes. All stirred up with some whole wheat pasta, olive oil, and juice from the artichokes. Yum.
But I only used about 1/3 pound. of my meat. Did I mention Student’s Dad said he would “keep me in mind” if he bagged any deer this year? His wife and Student apparently won’t eat it. I love the taste, although I think it smells strange before you cook it.
My freezer is packed full. Don’t get me wrong – I’m on a tight budget and freaking psyched to get an asston of free food. Got any good recipes? How does venison do in meatloaf, when mixed with other ground meats (pork, beef, etc.)?
We always have plenty of venison, since my husband hunts.
I make venison meatloaf with the ground stuff- use about half venison and half beef, since the deer meat gets kind of dry. You need the beef to keep it juicy. Use your favorite meatloaf recipe, just use half venison. I add lots of finely minced onion. Make sure it’s cooked all the way through, too. No ‘rare’ meatloaf, please. It’s very good. It has a different flavor, but it’s very good. You an also make burgers with it. Mmmm, Bambi burgers!
You can also use it for chili, but again, you’ll want to mix it with other meats. It gets too dry to use alone. When I use it for chili, I usually mix it with equal amounts of ground beef and ground pork.
For the chops, brush them with a little canola oil and sprinkle with some freshly cracked black pepper or that McCormick seasoning for steaks - I think it’s called Montreal? I’d grill them or broil them, like pork chops or steaks, depending on how thick they are, maybe 8 minutes a side. We usually get some great thick chops. They’re always good.
We get the sausage, too. I usually grill that and serve it with other grilled veggies (or cut it up and shish kabob it with lots of onions) and garlic mashed potatoes. Be careful if you grill it. Do it over low heat, as it can burn easily.
I can’t help with the cube cut - I don’t ever cook cube steaks.
My neighbor’s brother-in-law has won two state barbecue championships. He grilled us some deer steaks last week. I don’t know what part of the deer they came from, but they were wonderfully tender. I don’t like venison, but I liked this.
He sliced them thin and rubbed them with fresh garlic. On the grill, he waits until he sees blood drops on top of the meat, flips them until he sees blood drops on the other side, and they’re done. We ate them on buns. I’m drooling, just thinking about how good they were.
Except for certain farm raised deer, it’s a wild animal. It’s meat is much leaner, tougher, and dryer than anything you’re going to buy in the store. They key to great venison is long, low, and wet cooking, for the most part. A marinade would not be a bad idea, and venison is great for stews and chili.
Long, low and wet, or quick and keep it rare, bouv, depending on the cut.
If someone’s giving you venison, I highly doubt that you’ll get any backstrap, which is the equivalent to the filet mignon cut on beef. If you should get your hands on some, it’s absolutely outstanding cut into inch-thick medallions, wrapped around with bacon, and cooked with some kosher salt and fresh black pepper in a cast-iron skillet to rare.
Any more than medium rare, and it starts to resemble shoe leather, and the other cuts are even worse about that.
Venison is very good done in the long slow way too though; it’s just that in-between stage that is terrible. Did you get a roast? Try slicing it up and making some stroganoff. My kids love that, and don’t even whine, “Mo-om, what kind of meat is this?”
I would usually marinate mine in either milk or red wine for a few hours before cooking it, usually on the grill.
Venison chops are REALLY yummy with eggs in the morning. I just take 'em out of the milk marinade, put a bit of salt and pepper on 'em, and fry 'em up. Heaven.
And if you find that you couldn’t POSSIBLY eat all that venison by yourself, I would very gladly pay you a nice sum to ship them FedEx to my house. My email is in my profile.
I found a recipe for a pretty typical German style stew of venison and translated it for you. Juniper berries and venison are traditional flavor pairings in Germany and game has a long and elevated culinary tradition there. I have modified the recipe slightly with the addition of extra wine, as I think the amount of liquid ingredients in the original recipe for this braise was on the dry side. I chose this recipe because it sounds really good and is probably a traditional hunters recipe. It can also be modified easily as a base recipe for many versions… don’t like or can’t find juniper berries? Add some rosemary and/or sage and some mushrooms and garlic instead for a Hunter’s stew. Add some paprika and a good bit of tomato paste instead of the juniper berries and you have an Austrian venison gulasch. This stew and all of the variations can also be rounded out with a bit of heavy cream or sour cream (or both) at the end for a really nice touch. Peppered Venison (Reh-Pfeffer)
One and a half pounds of stew cubed venison (I would use the “cubed” venison steaks cut into chunks, here.)
Three or four small onions (large dice)
Fifteen to twenty juniper berries
Two slices of diced bacon
Half a cup of venison or beef glace (I’m sure stock could substitute)
One cup of red wine
Four to five tablespoons of vegetable oil
Half tsp.of dried thyme
Four bay leaves
Heat the oil in a large high sided pan. Add the bacon and render. Add the cubed venison and sautee till well browned. Add the onions and sautee a bit longer until the onions are softened slightly.
Crush the juniper berries and add along with the thyme and bay leaves. Add the wine and stock to cover and bring to a boil, turn the heat to low and simmer for an hour and a half covered. Take the lid off for the last fifteen minutes of cooking. Season at the end with salt and pepper to taste (Optional: you may also add a shot of Cognac or brandy at this point.).
Sprinkle them with some pepper (no salt), dust with flour and fry until brown on both sides. Transfer to casserole dish, sprinkle on 1 package of onion soup mix, and add 2 cups of beef broth. Cover and bake at 350 for around an hour. Thicken up juices for gravy and serve with mashed potatoes. YUMMY!
We eat lots of venison here, too. We simply adore the backstrap! It’s the very best part of the deer.
If you contact your local slaughterhouse (Providing you HAVE a local slaughterhouse, as we do here), let them know that you are wanting to buy venison and give them your name and phone number. They’ll call you when there is any to be had, because lots of hunters don’t eat the meat, and they drop off the deer at the slaughterhouse after the hunt, leaving the slaughterhouse to do as they please with it.
