If you want to cook with venison, you should know a few things:
Deer fat is inedible. Its as tough as inner tubes and tastes like old socks must. (Not that I’ve ever eaten old socks mind you.) Have whoever butchers the deer clean off as much of the fat as possible.
Venison burger or sausage with no fat would be inedibly dry. You have to mix a bit of beef fat in to make it moist.
If you cook venison with much deer fat still in it, it gives off a horrible reek. This is why many people say they don’t like venison.
To prevent the reek and make venison taste nice, you have to cook it in acid. Since you’re making lasagna, with tomato sauce, and onions, that’s not a problem.
I’ve eaten lots of different types of lasagna. This is the only one I’ve ever made myself. It was wonderful.
I love to use fresh Polish sausage in mine (as opposed to smoked) - boiled, cooled, and sliced or chopped. Yum. And fresh mushrooms. And I do use cottage cheese. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it. So there.
I also make my own sauce - Ragu and Prego can’t match it!
Cottage cheese in the lasagna…might as well let the pigs ride in the wagon.
Next thing ya know somebody’s gonna be making gumbo with no okra in it.
:eek: I suppose y’all use store bought noodles too.
Ragu…don’t even use that word if you’re talking sauce. I don’t want to hear about anything that sounds like it came out of a can or jar.
Hell, Stouffer’s has one in the frozen food section at the grocery store for about $12 that’d do most of y’all just fine, I reckon.
If you’re gonna make sauce…ya gotta grow you’re own. Fresh pasta…and real cheese not that plastic stuff, better yet some homemade ricotta. A quart of milk some vinegar and a little lemon juice.
I’m sure everyone’s recipes taste great. But it’s kinda like making chili. Too much variation in the ingredients and you don’t have chili anymore. Not that it isn’t good mind ya. It just ain’t right. Somebody gave me a recipe for chili awhile back. Mm-hmm…get this, it had shrimp in it. Then they wanted to add bell peppers…damnit man that’s just a shrimp stew with some chili seasoning in it. Hell, I season lots of stuff with chili.
My lord just cause you use chili peppers or powder don’t make it chili. Just cause it has lasagna noodles in it don’t make it lasagna.
Sorry about the rant y’all, it’s late…or early, not quite sure which anymore. I’ll work you out a recipe if you like. I cook everything from memory and taste so it’s not like I got it wrote down somewhere.
BTW I got coonasses on one side of the family and Italians on the other. I’ve done all the cooking in my family and for myself for the last …25+ years I guess.
Keep the recipes coming though. Makes me wanna cook something.
I used to make my own meat sauce. Now Prego and Ragu both do meat sauces that are at least as good as the ones I used to make. In my lasagna goes: whole wheat lasagna noodles; meat sauce mixed with seasoned tomatoes; “kicked up” ricotta (a 16 oz. package of ricotta beaten with two eggs, garlic, oregano and parmesan cheese); mozzarella cheese, and, just below the top layer of mozzarella, a layer of thinly sliced pepperoni!
A little bell pepper is one thing, I’m talking a pot full plus way too much oregano and basically a cross between an italian or a cajun stew with shrimp in it.
And no…I don’t rely on bell peppers to make chili.
Then again I make chili a little different than most folks. It’s earned me a few trophies in various cookoffs and BBQ competitions thus far AND everyone I know says it the best.
A chili recipe…heh yeah right :rolleyes: I’ll give ya a hint though. Grill your meat on a low smoky fire separate from the cast iron pot that you make the chili gravy in. Cook all the ingredients down into a thick roux adding what it needs for flavor. Don’t you dare put any beans in it either. If you want beans…make another pot and anyone that wants beans can add 'em theirself.
So you’ve got this large dutch oven about three fourths full of a rich chili gravy and the skirt on the side is smoked to perfection…chop it up into fine cubes against the grain and slip into the pot. this way you get the meat just right not tough or overcooked, the chili is just right for your taste and no grease, and they only compliment each other rather than tasting like a big pot of sh**
And use real ingredients…
Recipe #1: QtM’s lasagna. Use my killer spaghetti sauce recipe, along with noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, etc.
Recipe #2: QtM’s Cuisine recipe lasagna for special company when I’m ambitious: This sauce uses beef and pork, diced tomatos, stewed tomatos, onions, garlic, the usual italian spices, olive oil, and a few other things I can’t remember. The cheese sauce uses boursin cheese (god that’s rich) with butter, onions, milk, flour, spinach, cayenne pepper, nutmeg or mace, etc. Then the usual noodles, buffalo mozzarella (fresh), and fresh grated parmesan.
