First let me just put it out there that I am not a trained chef. I have never been to cooking school. Never had formal training of any kind. I have worked in a lot of restaurants during high school/college and what I can tell you is that I like to eat….and I like to hunt. I grew up in a hunting family and it was drilled into my little brain that if you kill it…you eat it. This rule applied from afternoon squirrel hunting as a 10-year-old, to bass fishing in my backyard pond, to the hunt club with my dad and his friends. Unfortunately, eating what we caught was never the highlight of my hunting and fishing experience. How do I say this nicely………..well….my dad and his friends were just not good cooks. There. There it is. They were in fact, really bad cooks. Maybe it was the fact that it was the 1980’s (and no one seemed to care)…maybe no one ever helped them, maybe they were not “foodies”……..Any way you slice it…….I loathed eating dry, crumbly, venison burgers. After the age of eleven, I could no longer eat beer battered fish……(every fish we caught was destined for the thick pancake/beer batter and the dirty old fryer)….. Same thing every time. My dad’s idea of getting creative was to throw a few pounds of venison into a pot with some Ragu spaghetti sauce. Ignorance was not bliss…..it was tasteless and boring. I guess we just didn’t have any idea of what to do with our catch once we got home, and it showed.
This all changed after I ended up on tiny Hawaiian island after graduating college. I moved there to surf, fish, dive, and to basically escape going back to grad school (and truth be told…I was just not ready to jump into a “real world” 9-5 job…). So there I was on Lanai, no stop lights, no fast food, only a few local restaurants….just a beautiful place to do what I loved most, surf, fish, hunt, and dive. It was heaven. We had tons of Axis deer and Mouflon sheep. Turkeys and pheasant. The hunting was excellent. The fishing was incredible. We often had too much meat for our freezers. Afternoons were spent dropping gallon zip lock bags of venison off to everyone we knew. It was a super communal atmosphere. If you dropped off venison to a family today, it was not odd to have some mahi, tuna, or lobsters on your doorstep next week. We all shared, we all cooked, we all appreciated the amazing reality around us.
So, very quickly I realized that I grew up at a cooking disadvantage. My neighbors on Lanai were an old Filipino couple, Earl and Edna. He was retired, never left the island, and collected old International Scout 4×4’s. He must have had 10-12 rusted out Scouts in his yard (I am pretty sure that one or two actually worked). Edna spent her days gardening and taking care of an incredible collection of Orchids. After my first hunt I brought Edna a few back-straps from an Axis buck and had a beer with Earl. About 3 hours later she knocked on my front door with a tupperware of what looked like cold ground meat. Raw meat. She didn’t speak much English so she just motioned for me to try it along with some cold white rice that she had in plastic wrap. Raw venison was a stretch for me but I wanted to be polite and I figured that if I got sick….well….I guess I did not think that far ahead. I ate the mixture with chopsticks, chased it with some cold rice, and my culinary life was never the same. That afternoon changed me. She had sliced (minced) up the back-strap, mixed the meat with fresh lemon juice, lime juice, a dash of coconut milk, salt, a bit of fish sauce, onions, tomatoes, and some cilantro. Basically, she made venison ceviche. Yes.. The meat was not “raw” it was technically “cooked” by the salt and acid. The taste was incredible. She told me to use some of her bibb lettuce from the yard and introduced me to the world of lettuce wraps. I was blown away. Edna became my mentor that day. I brought her meat and fish every time I could in hopes that she would share some of her cooking knowledge with me. And she did, and I soaked it all in. Years and years later, I owe her so much for showing me that venison can be amazing. It does not have to be dry, chewy, and “gamey”. With a little “know how”, some fresh ingredients, and an open mind, venison can outshine any rib eye or filet you have ever had.
Rules to live by when preparing and cooking venison
- The quality of your venison starts as soon as you pull the trigger. You want to get that deer field dressed and cooled down asap. Don’t ride around with your big buck in your truck bed showing your buddies in 75 degree heat………..dress it, pack the chest cavity with ice (if you are far from your cooler or processor), and get that thing cold. Click here for a great You Tube video if you need help with the whole field dressing thing.
- Know your processor. Make friends with the guy that will be processing your deer. I like to process my animals myself. But I do go to my local guy from time to time. Make friends, check out his set up, ask to see the cooler. Make sure the set up is clean and that he is reputable. Ask to see what they offer when butchering your deer. A good processor will not just offer sausage and ground meat. A good processor will ask you what you want, how do you like to cook, what kind of fat do you want added (and what percentage). Anyway, spend some time with the guys, the benefits will be great down the road.
- Age your meat!! A good processor will dry age your deer in the cooler for a week at a minimum. This is crucial for the meat to develop flavor and get tender. My rule of thumb is that the older the deer the longer you need to age the meat. Small, young animals are usually tender from the get go….so a few days will suffice. When you have that old monster buck….I can let that hang and age for 10-14 days. Helpful hint……if you don’t have a cooler to hang your meat….I use a big cooler and ice…lots of ice. I use plastic coke/soda crates, turn them upside down in the bottom of the cooler, place my meat on top, and pack with ice. Open the drain and prop the cooler so the melted ice (and blood) will drain out. While this is not the best way….it works…I leave the meat surrounded by ice (never submerged in water) for about 4 days.
- Keep your freezer up to date! Don’t be that guy that has packages of ground venison deep in your chest freezer from way back in 1999. I try to go into each hunting season with an empty freezer. Keep it fresh!
- Know your deer. I shoot two does every year for my most prized pieces of meat. A doe or young deer are the absolute best for steaks and grilling. Old mature bucks will have a lot more muscle structure, connective tissue, and will just be a bit tougher. Big and old = ground venison and sausage. Young and small = filets, steaks, roasts, and cold cuts (yes I said cold cuts!). This is when you can talk to your butcher\processor and let them know what and how you want to cook. Ask what kind of roasts can he cut for you, let him know what kind of steaks you like to eat. Ask him what he likes to bring home to his family. Shoot, I even get them to keep the back-strap attached to the rib bones so I can have a “Crown Rack” for Christmas dinner….yes….you can do that too…! You can check out our Ground Venison Recipe here for tips on how to add your own fat, and make some killer burgers.
- There are two schools of thought when cooking venison. Hot and Fast or Low and Slow. Venison is very low in fat, does not have a lot of juices, and can overcook if you are not careful. Just like above, if you have steaks, filets, back-straps, any meat you want to “grill”….you want to go Hot and Fast. Get your grill or your pan hot, like real hot. Season your venison with generous amounts of salt and pepper (if you think you have salted too much, add a bit more and you should be good). Hot and fast is how you want to grill or sear your steaks. Venison must be cooked rare or medium rare. I can’t stress this enough! 130 degrees for rare and 135 degrees for medium rare. If you get to 140 degrees you might as well use that steak as a paper weight……..Get a meat thermometer, pay attention while cooking, and pull that venison off the grill\pan at 10 degrees below your desired temperature. I pull my back-straps when they hit 120 degrees and let them rest for 10 minutes. The meat will continue to cook after you take it off the heat. Stopping the cooking process will not stop the internal temperature from rising. Remember you can always throw it back on the grill…but you can’t “uncook” it once it is dry and gray……
- Low and Slow. This is probably the most versatile way to cook venison. Braising, smoking, stewing, and slow roasting are all great ways to change up your menu. Remember here that venison is extremely low in fat….adding fat and moisture to the cooking process can yield wonderful results. Got a crock pot? Throw a venison roast in a crock pot with some beef stock, red wine, garlic, and whatever vegetables you have around. The venison will shred just like pulled pork after about 6-8 hours… (see recipe here…it is for oxtails but venison will work fine) add more vegetables at the last hour and you will have an incredible dish. We love to slow cook roasts until the meat shreds and use the meat for enchiladas, tacos, or even a venison version of Italian Beef sandwiches (kind of like a French Dip Sandwich).
- Sauces. Let’s talk sauces. With venison being less fatty, there will be less internal juices when you are done cooking. Using some homemade sauces can take a plain hind roast and turn it into an unforgettable dinner. Some of our favorites are a horseradish\sour cream sauce (like served with prime rib). A White BBQ sauce like a Morgan County Sauce will turn heads for sure (see our recipe here). Chili Pepper Water is a downright favorite of ours and stems from my time on Lanai (check the recipe…super simple, vinegar and peppers..) Or you can google up some recipes for some homemade steak sauces. I feel that there are so many possibilities here. Try one out and leave us a comment.
- Marinades. Ok, marinades work great for venison. You can add moisture and flavor to your meat by soaking for a few hours. My only advice here is not to overdue it. Two hours of marinade time is great for smaller cuts of meat. 4 hours is max for me on large roasts. Remember, you still want to taste the meat. Look up some great marinades on google. Red wine and garlic does wonders. A little balsamic vinegar and olive oil is awesome. Buttermilk can tenderize the meat if you are going to do some country fried venison medallions. Just watch your time here….no overnight marinating…..and please don’t submerge your meat in Italian Dressing so long that you cant tell what you are eating……
Well, that is about all I have on the great venison debate. I have gone from eating crumbly, dry, saw dust like venison burgers, to experiencing venison in some of the most creative recipes out there. A little time, patience, and an open mind can help your deer meat be the talk of your town.
Good luck, leave us a note below and let us know how it all turned out.
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