Venison

[Chufi]

Venison braised with beetroot and port is one of my winter favorites (even if my venison comes in small portions from the butcher )

I think there's something in beetroot that helps to tenderize the meat. And this braise is absolutely gorgeous.. a beuatiful ruby red color.

[Adam Balic]

If you can get the flank (belly) in one piece, this is a good cut. It has more fat and then the rest of the animals mostly ends up as sausages for this reason), so it is great spread with a forcemeat or other stuffing, rolled tied and braised.

[srhcb]

One dead deer (according to DNR guy a prime buck, probably about 180 lbs) will arrive at my house tomorrow, courtesy of Paul.  It will go to the butcher (a great one) for processing.  When I talked to Paul a few minutes ago, he said "go on that eGullet thing and find out what we want and how to cook it."  After almost 40 years of hunting, this is his first, and he is excited.  The kids are already fighting about where the antlers will be mounted (in the garage, I suggested).

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Wait Just One Minute Here!

Your husband has hunted nearly 40 years and this is his first deer? While I have to admire his perseverance, he's no Natty Bumpo, that's for sure!

Deer aren't exactly hard to find up hear in Northern MN. I know a guy who's killed 9 so far this year with his pickup truck.

And you have a cabin with no mounted deer heads?

Them's what we all call "City Folks".

[Smithy]

my mum in the US accidently knocked down a deer while driving back home. she called her handyman and his wife to help lug the deer back home. then, they cooked it! 

EEEEEEWWWW!!!!!

Yeah... EEEEWWW! I'll bet that was some gamey hunk of venison.

jackal10... You are one of the few that I know of that like the gamey taste. To me, it just means ill-treated venison. It is so bad, that is why there are all of those recipes out there for marinades to try to kill it. Of course, you do enough to cover up the musk (thinking you really can) and you can't tell it is venison anymore.

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I must disagree with the assumption that the meat was wrecked. Depending on how the deer was hit, how quickly it died, and how the meat was treated, there might have been a lot of salvageable meat left. I know this from experience, because last year I decided that the doe who'd committed hara-kiri on my car deserved to be eaten. After I'd cut away the bruised and damaged meat (clean shoulder strike, immediate death) I still had a good half left. It's all been good, with not a touch of gaminess.

One dead deer (according to DNR guy a prime buck, probably about 180 lbs) will arrive at my house tomorrow, courtesy of Paul.  It will go to the butcher (a great one) for processing.  When I talked to Paul a few minutes ago, he said "go on that eGullet thing and find out what we want and how to cook it."  After almost 40 years of hunting, this is his first, and he is excited.  The kids are already fighting about where the antlers will be mounted (in the garage, I suggested).

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Wait Just One Minute Here!

Your husband has hunted nearly 40 years and this is his first deer? While I have to admire his perseverance, he's no Natty Bumpo, that's for sure!

Deer aren't exactly hard to find up hear in Northern MN. I know a guy who's killed 9 so far this year with his pickup truck.

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I too applaud Paul's perseverance! I take it to mean he's choosey about his shots. Good for him. And yes, they do seem to prefer the highways to the woods.

Snowangel, do let us know the size of that "nice doe". The one I hit last year was a "nice doe" and she still outweighed me. I figured this out when I strung a rope through a pulley in the garage rafter and tried to hoist the gutted carcass. There we were: deer on one end of the rope, me on the other end, and MY feet were the ones dangling in the air. A double block-and-tackle arrangement was required before she was properly hanging. Good thing my husband wasn't there to "help"; he'd have been too busy laughing and taking photos.

[fifi]

I forgot about the "great bambi experiment" we did for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Again, I recall that we had a leg. I think it was the whole thing. Somewhere I had heard about wrapping it with pig skin. Maybe I heard of that here. The nephew seasoned the thing up while I went in search of pig skin. I found it at a Latin butcher shop. We wrapped it all up snug as a bug in a rug in that pig skin, which was in big sheets, and proceeded to roast it low and slow. I don't recall what all he seasoned it with. I will ask if he remembers but it was really really really good. I also think that after we removed it to sort of brown the venison we left it in the oven to crisp up. Pork crack!

[Smithy]

Venison medallions in wine sauce, venison stroganoff, grilled venison kebabs are favorite treatments of mine. Venison stew is lovely, too, and I made what I thought was a great venison gumbo last winter during the great eGullet Cook-Off III: Gumbo thread.

I bet you could do wonders with a stuffed rolled venison roast, stuffings and spices of your choosing. Dried fruit stuffing with a port wine glaze? Mushroom stuffing with a mustard and rosemary coating? The possibilities are endless.

I'm so glad to see people around this Forum coming up with uses for meaty pieces. It breaks my heart when people grind up all that good meat and make it into burger or sausage. Sure, those are good - but it's like turning an entire cow's worth of meat into burger. My husband was one of those grind-it-and-bury-the-flavor folks until I began to re-educate him.

[McDuff]

I was butchering a deer for a buddy several years ago and had my big old Labrador Oliver in the garage with me. My buddy kept telling me to keep the dog away from the meat, "He gets a taste of that and he'll be out in the woods killing deer." I said, "Muzzy, with all due respect, what are you, an idiot? He eats McDonald's and doesn't chase cows."

Guy across the street was making a venison daube last night. I kept waiting, sent over some freshly baked bread....nothing.

[Smithy]

I discovered a pair of venison round steaks in the freezer this morning, nicely cryovac-packed. Any suggestions on treatment for round steak? I'm off to see whether any of my cookbooks will tell me where that cut is from and what treatment usually benefits it best. While I'm looking, I suspect several eGulletteers will have better and quicker answers for me. The meat doesn't look fatty.

[snowangel]

No clue what to do with the round steaks.

But, we returned home from a 24 hour expedition to a S. MN farm for pheasant hunting (tons and tons of pheasants, all on protected land ). There was a message from my FIL.

Tomorrow night or Tuesday morning, the two forequarters and two rearquarters of another doe will appear at my house (he's keeping the backstraps). They will arrive as whole quarters.

I'm gong to need some advice on what to do with them!

Deer hunting this year has been like hunting in a game park. He went to Wisconsin yesterday (Fredrickson area), and had a buck and a doe in less than an hour. He said he spent longer prepping for the trip then he did hunting.

[fifi]

The round steaks will probably benefit from a braising technique. Perhaps one of the Molly Stevens recipes that includes wine. I asked my nephew about this and he doesn't recall ever getting round steaks cut. He just does the whole leg. That is what I reported on above so that is why I am thinking a braise would do the trick.

[sadistick]

There is this recipe my uncle learned somewhere in europe...its for venison loin (I believe) but its basically searing the meat (this meat should be eaten rare to medium rare at most) as there isnt much fat in it. We always deglazed the pan for searing with shallots, a tiny bit of garlic, then port...about 2 cups or more (something that you would actually drink though) and finally, what makes the sauce, is a lot of fresh chopped sage, seasoning to taste.

Put the sauce through a mixer after, and reduce further if desired...add a bit if butter at the end if you are in a good mood

[Chufi]

Venison braised with beetroot and port is one of my winter favorites (even if my venison comes in small portions from the butcher  )

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so, this thread inspired me to make this, you can see it here in the Dinner! thread

[fifi]

I have just been informed that we will be having a leg-o-bambi as one of the Thanksgiving treats. (Need to take back some freezer room.) We are definitely going the braising route as that worked so well with the Aggie recipe before. Besides, it can be put in a slow oven (225 F) and let go over night the night before or the day before. The rewarming routine with venison worked really well with braised venison last time. But, I will be watching this topic for other braising ideas. Red wine and rosemary is dancing in my head.

[Smithy]

Further to the round steak question: I've settled on braising, based on where the cut comes from. Now I'm down to dithering among flavorings, and I'd best get going on it soon. Fifi, I'm glad you mentioned the red wine and rosemary - happens I have some of both, as well as some mushrooms and leeks, that need to be used. I've also unearthed interesting-looking recipes from Chef John Folse's Encyclopedia of Cajun Cookery (that may not be quite the right name, but Mayhaw Man is spot-on about that book's value), and from my ancient copy of Helen Brown's West Coast Cookbook. Then, there's Chufi's Braised Beef, Dutch Style that's been getting such raves.

Decisions, decisions. This is another reason we usually eat late around here.

Edited for spacing.

Edited November 20, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[fifi]

Red wine, rosemary, mushrooms and leeks. My . . . My! Sounds like a plan to me. I would be interested to know how long you have to braise for it to get tender. We haven't a clue as the last leg was turned down to 225 and left overnight so we don't know exactly when it got done.

Thanks a helluva lot for reminding me that I haven't ordered the Folse book yet. My Amex card is still recovering from the latest bargains on Amazon.

[Sue Flay]

For Christmas dinner we're having venison pie (much to my young cousins', and perhaps my husband's, horror; there may be a pinch-hitter turkey). It's my mother's recipe and is basically a venison daube with a little gin for the juniper flavor and a tablespoon of red current jelly, prepared a few days ahead and then baked with pearl onions under a pate brisee crust.

Edited November 20, 2005 by Sue Flay (log)

[Cucina]

Well my favorite road kill deer story of all time dates back to the Carter administration. Zbigniew Brzezinski was National Security Advisor, his wife was an accomplished hostess and a school bus happened to hit a deer on Georgetown Pike near their home on the very same day she was having a dinner party with cabinet level guests. One thing lead to another, and the main course served that night was venison and according to reports, everyone raved about how wonderful it was...until someone asked about her source!

[Smithy]

Well my favorite road kill deer story of all time dates back to the Carter administration.  Zbigniew Brzezinski was National Security Advisor, his wife was an accomplished hostess and a school bus happened to hit a deer on Georgetown Pike near their home on the very same day she was having a dinner party with cabinet level guests.  One thing lead to another, and the main course served that night was venison and according to reports, everyone raved about how wonderful it was...until someone asked about her source! 

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What a great story!

I tried Chufi's Braised Beef treatment on the venison round steaks tonight. I think the steaks might have been cut a bit too thinly to benefit from this treatment; they were around 3/4" thick at the thickest. After 3 hours they were edibly tender, but they certainly didn't have the fall-apart texture advertised in Chufi's recipe. I let the part I didn't put on my dinner plate keep cooking, and I'm none too sure they were any better at 4 hours. This may be one of those cuts that benefits from initial cooking, then cooldown, then recooking. Come to think of it, beef round steak benefited from just that treatment last winter, in the Braising Seminar.

Texture issues notwithstanding, the meal was good because the flavor is fantastic. That is a winner recipe.

Tomorrow night: venison roast. This time I will do the wine and rosemary thing.

Fifi, you really need that book.

[srhcb]

Although I'm not a hunter, and I'm not inordinately fond of wild game, my brother has hunted all over the world, and hunts deer in at least three locales every year, so I've had occasion to sample venison from many sources.

One thing people forget about venison is that there are no standards in breeding, feeding, or processing like there are for domestic meat animals. An 85 pound crop-fed doe from Mississippi is an altogether different animal than a 215 pound swamp buck from Northern Minnesota.

To paraphrase Brillat-Savarin/Tiny Tim, "They are what they eat". The Mississippi doe, owing to it's diet, would be closely akin to good beef while the Minnesota swamp buck would have distinct overtones of, well, muskeg swamp.

The texture of the two animals will also vary considerably. Although even corn fed deer will have less fat than lean beef, it can be very tender when prepared properly. On the other hand, describing an old buck as "shoe leather" does a disservice to shoes!

It's best to consider not only the cut of meat when choosing a recipe, but also the age and probable diet of the animal. I'm still inclined to consider mocassins the most useful by-product of dead deer, with good venison/pork suasage running a distant second.

So, while I believe in "different strokes for different folks", ("live and let live" seemed like an inappropriate aphorism to refer to hunting), I can't see much point in devoting much time to hunting an animal that can yield, at best, a few pounds of choice meat. Especially when said animal can, with no notice, leap out of the ditch and destroy a 2 ton $50,000 pickup truck!

SB (ruggged indoorsman)

[snowangel]

HELP!!!! (yes, I am shouting).

This is on the table on my deck and I need to take care of it. Advice, please!

I have until Thursday morning when I leave for a long weekend. Fortunately it is cold outside.

It is two fore and two rear-quarters of a little doe. All manner of knives and power tools available.

[fifi]

Here is an idea . . . Select a likely power tool. Cut up those lovely shanks for braising. Venison shanks sound good to me. Wrap the rest, throw in the freezer and contemplate what to do as you sip your wine at the resort this weekend.

That is some gorgeous hunks-o-bambi. I am jealous.

[handmc]

listen to FiFi. Nice fact cap there, that's something you don't see every day.

[snowangel]

As I've reported here, I'm in a rather hurried search of ways in which to process these quarters. Although the meat is not terribly well marbeled, the shoulders do have a very nice fat cap.

Suggestions on smoking venison, (as well as dealing with the rest of these parts), is most appreciated.

I am accomplished at smoking the normal stuff -- briskets, butts, shoulders, turkeys -- but venison is different.

Does that connective tissue respond the same way it does in pork?

Rub, no rub? Wood type?

Advice, please!

[fifi]

I consulted the nephew. He says you have to figure out some way to cook it low and slow with wet heat for a long time. He actually has pressure cooked it (with seasonings) and then put it on the pit for an hour or so of smoking. You could wrap it in foil, with bacon and other stuff in there to moisten it, cook it in the smoker, then remove the foil for a bit. Depending on the deer, he removes the fat because of risk of gaminess. That may not be a problem with your deer, though.

He likes to use a mollases glaze with plenty of black pepper and some paprika when you finish it in the smoker. He says that makes for a lovely mahogany glaze and a nice presentation.

[Dave the Cook]

I'd go the other direction: smoke for an hour or so, then into the oven for a long, long time at low, low heat. But honestly, I don't know from venison. The wildest thing I've ever cooked is brown trout.