This was my impression the one time I ate venison (in 1984. For 20 minutes), at my aunt’s house in Germany. My uncle had killed the deer recently, and it was incredibly tender. My aunt made spaetzle to go with.
I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 15 years, but this memory makes my mouth water.
I heard that deer and elk have so little fat on them that the only way to make sausage with them is if you mix in other meats. Is that not true?
Well, we live on deer as an alternative to fish. My husband does the hunting, and a couple of tricks to getting good venison is to avoid the bucks in general, and in particular when they are in rut. A nice plump doe is my personal favorite, but I also like the bambies.
The field handling of the meat is the first determination on what the final outcome of the quality of the meat. Immediate bleeding and skillful gutting is imperative. Hung and skinned, then aged for a few days to a week before butchering helps with the tenderness. Our deer are small Sitka Blacktail, my husband is allowed 5 per year, and as I am too gimped to hunt anymore I am allowed to get a license and have my husband be my proxy hunter.
In my experience, deer can carry a large amount of fat on them, which they depend on to get through the winter. Unlike beef, it isn’t marbled throughout the muscle, rather the majority lies like a saddle over the back and onto the sides. It is true that deer fat tastes gamey, strong. If I have a big enough chunk I nail it to a tree and the birds come and feast. When we make burger and sausage we generally add either some beef or pork fat.
Just as with any other meat, cooking method depends on the cut. Backstrap is lightly coated in seasoned flour and quickly panfried in bacon grease, and the first meal of the season is truly a celebration. Steaks and roasts come off the hindquarter, and the frontquarters are so tough I trim them up and pot roast them. I cook any other dish which calls for beef with deer, soup, stews, cassarols, etc.
I love deer liver, but the very best liver I have ever eaten is seal liver. I am married to an Alaska Native, so I get to eat some foods most folks never even dream of!
I find that after eating a lot of deer, beef doesn’t taste very good to me at all, I taste a chemical-ish after taste, and I came from a family which raised our own beef, so there ya go!
I just got my first little bambi of the season last weekend…tiny thing, about the size of a beagle. Shot it with an elephant gun (7.65) at 75 yards…it dropped 9 feet away, so little if any stress (adrenaline and lactic acid) in the muscles…Mmmmm…
Different cuts have different flavours and different cooking needs. This one is quite young so all of it will be fairly tender and mild tasting. It is also from the forest, shot in August, so it fed on berries and mushrooms and late season grasses (oat-type) from the neighboring farms. Unfortunately I had to leave the next day, so it was not hung to mature, but thrown in the freezer so I could transport it. Definitely not the best, but whaddaya do?
Game meat also needs to be cooked to medium-well at a minimum to be safe from any natural nasties. You can cook it to lightly pink, but the local doctors and forest folk here say to cook it thoroughly. Especially wild pig…don’t undercook it at all.
If you get very gamey flavoured meat, my fav recipe is pan friend cutlets cooked with tons of garlic and maple syrup…try it, you’ll love it.
The problem with fancy restaurants and game meat is that sometimes you get a bad or old animal…the supply of ‘fresh’ animals is not always a constant. Sometimes its great, sometimes not. Best to find a friend who hunts, or, dare I suggest, go get yourself a gun.
-Tcat
I will have to try the garlic and maple syrup Tomcat, it sounds good! I make a catsup from highbush cranberries, it has a lot of spices in it, and it makes a wonderful accompaniment to game, and it’s very good on rice and fish as well. I concur that game should not be served rare, but it is important not to overcook it as well. The older the deer, the heavier on the seasoning, garlic is quite good, as well as dry onion soup mix and water/stock for braising the parts I pot roast, with a bit of bacon grease. Baste often until the meat falls off the bone - divine!
Are your bambies small enough to dress and stuff and cook whole? That’s always a fun dinner party food. Most people here live off the land, so there isn’t much of an “ick” factor.
Venison is very lean - I prefer it to beef. Whenever I do eat red meat it’s almost always game animals. I think my favorite is caribou, although I’ve only had woodland-fed caribou, which is nowhere near as gamey tasting as the tundra-fed ones. Beaver is good as well (hey, no naughty jokes now). It’s actually a lot like duck in taste and texture, although it is very oily and it doesn’t taste as good if you don’t cook the oil out - the best way is to roast it on a spit so it can drip off. Bison is excellent too, very lean as well, and much more filling than beef.
If you’re adventurous you might try these as well, but depending on where you live they might be difficult to get. I have connections both genetically and locally to Indian country, so I have fairly easy access.
My email notification of this post omitted the bolding, so I was thinking “How did this discussion turn from deer to housecat?!?”
-rainy