More venison recipes

[Dave Crow]

Here are some of my favorite ways to cook venison:

WILD GAME RECIPES

1. Smoked Venison
Ingredients:
1. Venison Roast (Preferably boned)
2. Morton’s Tender Quick
Preparation:

For hot main dish – Rub roast with Tender Quick. Let stand overnight.
Fast smoke over hot charcoal.
Serve hot off the grill as rare as possible.
For cold appetizers or sandwiches – Follow instructions on bag for brine.
Leave meat in brine for at least two days. Cold smoke for
about eight hours. Slice very thin for both appetizers
and sandwiches. Backstrap works best for this method.
Hints:
For hot smoking, use big chunks of wood and mix with
the charcoal. This method is much faster and milder and
suited for a hot main course. I use a Weber type grill for
this type of smoking.
For cold smoking, use shredded hardwood or sawdust
soaked in water and blanketed on top of the charcoal.
For both methods, either hickory or apple wood seems
to give the best flavor.

2. Corned Game
Ingredients:
1. Whole shoulder or any roast
2. Morton’s Tender Quick or Prepared Corning Spices
Preparation:
Follow directions on either for brine. Put roast and brine in
Oven Roaster Bag and
refrigerate four-six days. Make sure entire roast is
covered. When ready to cook discard brine, rinse meat
thoroughly, return to bag and cook two-three hours at
300 degrees. Open bag, put in potatoes, carrots, onions,
cabbage, whatever vegetables you like. Reseal bag and
cook for another hour. A great boiled dinner. To sweeten
the brine try adding two-three TBS of pickling spice.

Since I did these recipes, I’ve discovered a mixture for corning
meat that is much better than Tender Quick alone. It is a mix from
The Sausage Maker in Buffalo, NY. WWW.sausagemaker.com.


3. Sauerbraten
Ingredients:
1. Any roast (I double recipe and use hind quarter)
2. Marinade
One cup cider vinegar Two TSP salt
One&onehalf cup water +/- Three bay leaves
One medium onion (sliced) +/- Six cloves
One TBS paprika +/- 12 peppercorns
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients for marinade. Heat but DO NOT BOIL.
Put hot marinade and meat in Oven Roaster Bag and refrigerate
for at least two days. Make sure entire roast stays in marinade.
When ready to cook, drain meat and save marinade. Coat meat
with flour, brown in olive oil or bacon grease and a small finely
chopped onion. Put roast and marinade back in roasting bag.
Cook in 250-300 degree oven until the meat falls apart.
Remove Roast and keep hot. Strain marinade and make
gravy. Add raisins and brown sugar to taste.
Hints:
Serve with red cabbage and spatzel (or mashed
potatoes)
4. Venison Goulash Soup
Ingredients:
1. Four venison shanks cut in thirds
2.(Optional) three pounds onions, sliced
and sautéed
3. Two quarts tomato or V8 juice
4. ¼ cup Dale’s Sauce or 1/8 cup soy sauce and
1/8 cup steak sauce
5. Four TBS paprika
6. +/- Three bay leaves
7. Two cloves finely chopped garlic
8. One cinnamon stick
9. One TSP nutmeg
10. Cayenne pepper – to taste
Preparation:
Place venison and tomato/V8 juice in stock pot and bring
to rolling boil. Skim the surface. Let cool and remove fat that
comes to surface. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until
meat falls off the bones. Remove bones, bay leaves, cinnamon
stick and serve.
Hints:
Serve over egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes or as soup with
heavy bread for sopping. If you like the bone marrow, save the
bones.


5. Dried Venison (Carne’ Seca)
Ingredients:
1. Any part of the deer. The closer to the hindquarter
the better, but I usually use shank and brisket.
2. Mexican Salsa. Either commercial or homemade
Preparation:
Put meat in roasting pan with just enough water to keep
from burning. Roast at 300-350 degrees until meat will
pull apart. Check regularly and add water if needed. When
meat can be pulled apart, shred with two forks or fingers.
The finer shredded the better. Squeeze as much of the
liquid out as possible. I use a potato ricer. Save the broth.
Put meat back in pan and cover with salsa. Simmer for about
an hour. This time hand squeeze the meat and save the juice.
Spread the meat on cookie sheets and air dry or dry in warm oven.
This meat freezes extremely well. Mix both of the saved juices
and use in soup stocks. It freezes well too.
Hints:
Serve room temperature as finger food appetizer or
microwave and serve with soft flour tortilla, refried
beans, rice, guacamole, sour cream etc, etc, etc.

6. Homemade Salsa
Ingredients:
1. One medium can whole peeled tomatoes
2. Jalapeno peppers
Chop tomatoes in a blender. Add peppers one at a time
and continue blending to your taste.

[TenPoint]

They all sound great. Which one do I try first?

[Dave Crow]

They all take time. The sauerbrauten recipe has become our traditional Christmas dinner. The corned venison is a great boiled dinner and is always a St. Patty's day hit. The goulash soup is a favorite on cold winter nights.. If you leave the tendons and tissue from the legs attached it becomes a natural thickening ( I can't spell gellitan). The smoked backstrap is the fastest to disappear. If you like country ham or any of the coldcuts with lots of salt and smoky flavor, it will take over the #1 spot. It freezes well and makes a great gift. We really like hot Mexican food and the carne' secca works with any of those dishes. All of these are completely cooked. Like tenderloin or chops the fast smoked meat has to be cooked as rare as your wife will let you serve it. With no fat marbled in like domestic red meat, the farther past rare that you cook it the tougher it gets.

I do all my own butchering and always have a freezer full of venison. Right now we're testing some recipes Field and Stream featured last fall. If they work out, I'll post them.