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cooking deer (venison) |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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Posted: 06 August 2010 at 10:26 |
following is some very generalised stuff that i wrote down while giving a friend some advice on how to cook deer. it might come in handy for readers but please keep in mind that it is not definitive and assumes that one has some basic knowledge of cooking - many of the fundamentals (make sure your oil is sizzling hot, etc.) are skipped over.
my favourite way to cook these is to flour and then pan fry them or cook on the grill as steaks or as shish-kabobs. seasoned salt, alpine touch and plain old salt-n-pepper are good seasonings. a splash of soy sauce is really good, too. deer goes well with mashed potatoes or rice. i like macaroni and cheese but i seem to be the only one left in the world who does. cream of mushroom soup works good in a pinch as a pan gravy or you can make your own with a little flour and milk, just like biscuits and gravy. regular brown gravy also works but for some reason pork gravy tastes better with deer if you can find it. don't ask me why, but if you mix chicken gravy and brown gravy it also tastes really good with deer. frozen veggies are really cheap and make a good side dish (after you cook them!).
if you have some spaghetti sauce, fry up some deer steaks and layer them in a baking dish (or your dutch oven!) between some spaghettis sauce. top with more sauce and some mozzarella cheese and bake for a while until the sauce turns dark and the cheese bubbles. serve on a bed of pasta with a some home-made garlic toast. top everything with a little parmesan and a couple of chopped up leaves of basil. really good! no matter what you do or how you cook it, you get a lot of cheap nutrition and flavour if you chop up and saute an onion in a little butter or olive oil, then add it to your final dish.
what i like to do is season the deer steaks, flour them and fry them in a little olive oil or butter for a few mintues on each side. from there you can do a lot of things. you can serve them up with side dishes or you can use them in some sort of baked thing like the spaghetti sauce dish. if you do them on the grill just season them and toss them on the grill. lots of ways to cook deer and if you go to www.baitshopboyz.com i have a whole recipe section there with a million deer recipes.
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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Tas,
Exploring the hunting threads ... it is hunting season in Spain ... Deer; pheasant, partridge and quail on the feathered side; and boar ... Ever have boar sausages ? boar estofado ( stew ) ? To die and go to heaven !
You must have some Italian blood, if you like macaroni and cheese with venison !
I truly enjoyed venison tartar and venison sausages ! These are Delicacies here in Spain; and are called " Manjars " in Spanish ...
Your recipes for venison sound very delicious too ...
Have you ever roasted deer ? Have you ever made charcuterie from venison ?
Thought you might like these recipes employing venison, the modern side of Spain :
1) asado de venado al vodka = Roast venison with vodka, wild mushrooms, white wine ...
2) lomo de corzo con salsa de membrillo = Pork Loin with quince sauce, garlic, truffle oil, sweet white wine, and Pedro Ximénez ... The venison is marinated for 36 hrs.
Kindest.
Margi.
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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HistoricFoodie
Admin Group Joined: 21 February 2012 Location: Kentucky Status: Offline Points: 4940 |
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Have you ever roasted deer ? Have you ever made charcuterie from venison ?
Yes and yes, Margi.
When working with venison (or any game, for that matter) it's important to remember that wild animals lack the fat content of their domesticated analogs. So you have to add fat in, and/or shorten the cooking times.
For instance, when making venison sausage, I add an almost equal quantity of fatty pork to the mix. This applies even to dry sausages, such as pepperoni or summer sausage. For example, if I'm using 5 pounds of venison I'll add about 4 pounds of pork.
Roasting venison is the same thing. You usually cover the roast with bacon or other fat source. And the cooking time, pound for pound, is considerably shorter.
You can see this same syndrome at work with modern pork. If you're using an old recipe, anything, say, pre-dating the 1960s, then you'll overcook the pork, because today's hogs have been bred to have less fat. Thus, nowadays you cook a pork loin to about 150F. Older pork could go to as much as 170F without the chance of it drying out.
Of all the venison recipes I have, my favorite remains medallions of tenderloin. Cut the tenderloins in slices about 1/2" thick. Salt and pepper them lightly. Melt some butter in a skillet and sweat a few cloves of bruised garlic in the butter. Turn the heat up. Add the medallions and cook for a very short time, perhaps a minute or two minutes per side. Any more than that and they'll be overcooked.
I usually tell folks to introduce the medallions to the heat and allow no further conversation.
Several of those medallions and a couple of sunny side ups and they don't make breakfast any better than that.
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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Brook, (H.F.)
Thanks so much for your Feedback, Culinary Expertise, informative data and Coaching on venison.
I shall definitely try your venison tenderloin recipe during the holidays.
Sounds phenomenal ...
Kindest,
Margi.
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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Rod Franklin
Chef Joined: 17 February 2010 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 921 |
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Back in the day I could reliably obtain fat trimmed from smoked hams for a very low price from a local butcher. I used it with deer meat when making venison hamburger and sausages. It was a great combination. Alas, they don't make pigs like they used too...
Simply and quickly fried tenderloin is very good too! |
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Hungry
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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Photo Courtesy: www.jaimeoliver.com
Spanish: Tournedo con bacon ...
EnglishFilet Mignon wrapped
with bacon ...
Good Afternoon Rod,
In Spain, the pig is worshipped for its delicacies ... Especially its acorn fed, air dried Huelva, Andalusian Iberian Ham varieties, sausages, Morcilla ( black pudding ), Roast Suckling Piglets and its Tenderloin Roasts.
So, with this in mind, the idea of wrapping bacon around venison steak sounds marvelous ... This is very commonplace here in Pork Producing regions of Spain.
Good idea ... They also do this bacon wrap with Monkfish and Sirloin or Entrécôte.
Kind regards.
Margi.
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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HistoricFoodie
Admin Group Joined: 21 February 2012 Location: Kentucky Status: Offline Points: 4940 |
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And all done for the same reason, Margi---to prevent an otherwise fat-free or low-fat protein from drying out.
Take that filet, for example. The tenderest cut of beef, to be sure. But all but fat free. So the bacon adds the necessary oil. In the case of filet, of course, it's also adding flavor to an almost tasteless hunk of beef. But that's the subject of a different thread.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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That's the good life right there, isn't it?
my opening post here was just some general stuff taken from some advice i gave a friend once. truth is, there are so many things that can be done with deer that we simply use it inter-changeably with any meat - usually beef, but often pork, too, or even chicken. i've HEARD that it is a great substitute for dishes calling for lamb or goat, but haven't yet explored this very much.
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HistoricFoodie
Admin Group Joined: 21 February 2012 Location: Kentucky Status: Offline Points: 4940 |
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That's the good life right there, isn't it?
It surely it, Ron. As an alternative, instead of garlic, saute the medallions on top of a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. Supurb!
Subbing venison for lamb or goat always works out nicely. In fact you might want to try subbing venison in a lamb tagine recipe. You'll love it!
One thing that always amuses me is the people who claim to not like venison because it tastes "gamey." Yet, in the next breath, they're lauding the flavor of lamb, or even mutton. Go figure.
I've mixed feelings about the new-found fascination with goat among celebrity chefs. On one hand, I'm happy that more Americans will now discovery how great it is. On the other hand, there goes another protein, roaring down the second-mortgage superhighway.
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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Brook,
Like the fresh Rosemary Herb suggestion ... Another wonderful idea, is Grape Vines, very commonly employed in the La Rioja region in Spain, and where grapes are a main crop. Tagine Vension: this sounds very lovely too ... Another wonderful idea. There are a few tagine recipes I had noticed online, one with mango, and ginger sounded quite lovely too ... Thanks for the suggestion. Margi. Venison with rose petal marmalade. |
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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Here's a couple of backstraps we did the other night, while butchering some deer for a friend. This was cooked, simply, with salt and pepper...sliced and put on quesadilla that were cooked on the grill...with a homemade olive and jalepeno salad. They were delicious...
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Enjoy The Food!
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Margi Cintrano
Master Chef Joined: 03 February 2012 Location: Spain Status: Offline Points: 6357 |
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Dan, Venison is quite a rare treat ... Looks very nice. However, on a personal note, just a bit médium rare for my preference. I love blue rare - rare ... Thank you for posting. HAPPY HOLIDAYS ... Margaux. |
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Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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Hi Margi!
I had no part in cooking this time, I was butchering this time. You can see that the middle on this one was med/rare to just under. It would have been nice to get it, still with that nice crust...but a little less depth to the cook penetrating the meat. They still turned out fabulous...as you know...the backstraps are so flavorful and tender...juicy. Thinking about it, venison is naturally good. Could you imagine what deer would look like if we started pumping them full of growth hormones, antibiotics and all kinds of horrible feed? That would end up being one strange creature. Hooray nature! ...and hooray to hunters...probably some of the worlds best conversationalist on the planet. Too many environmentalist and Mr. Shout Dogood just don't get the whole picture. Show me an ethical hunter/fisher...and I'll show you someone who not only loves to hunt, fish, eat...but also to sit, enjoy and appreciate the environment in which he hunts in...and all the wildlife, vegetation, etc that supports it. What fishermen would fish a lake empty...none!
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Enjoy The Food!
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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well, cook or butcher - it sure looks good, dan!
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Hoser
Admin Group Joined: 06 February 2010 Location: Cumberland, RI Status: Offline Points: 3454 |
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Damn! all I can say is
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Go ahead...play with your food!
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gonefishin
Master Chef Joined: 20 September 2012 Status: Offline Points: 1778 |
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We were going to make some deer pastrami too, anyone have any advice?
thanks!
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Enjoy The Food!
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