Delicious, succulent, great venison recipes start with good care of your game meat. It really starts with the quick and humane kill of your trophy deer. Then you need to find your deer and remove all entrails, wind pipe and sex organs as soon as possible. Care must be taken here to keep your venison meat free of all contaminants. Be careful not to puncture the stomach, intestines, or bladder when field-dressing your deer. If you do; wash off the affected area as soon as possible. I always have fresh water nearby to wash off any contaminated meat. I keep a container of water by all of my hunting stand sites. Refer to my video linked on the home page or it is also linked on the trophy deer harvest page for more tips on this.
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Protect Your Venison
You will need to remove your deer from your hunting area; take care not bruise the meat any more. You also need to remove the hide and cool it down as soon as possible. Then protect the meat from insects (wrap in several layers of cheesecloth) and other animals (dogs and coyotes mainly). If you remove the hide while the deer is still warm, it will come off much easier than when it has cooled down completely. You then need to age your venison. Age your venison in a cooler, or a refrigerator on wire racks, quartered, for 10 – 14 days at about 35 to 38 degrees. When you age your venison, the enzymes will break down the cell tissue in the meat. This will help with the flavor and the natural tenderizing process. Then your deer needs to be processed. I butcher my own venison and recommend that deer hunters do their own butchering too. That way you can control the whole process and keep your venison clean. You can and should label your specific cuts of meat. You will want to do this as all venison meat is not alike. Certain cuts require certain cooking methods. As you can imagine, you would not want to cook a cut of tenderloin steak the same as a cut of chuck steak.
Using a Food Savor Vacuum Packer
As I butcher my venison I pack the meat in plastic freezer bags and seal them with a food saver, it vacuum packs and seals my venison. I highly recommend using one. By using a food-saver your frozen venison will last almost twice as long then using just freezer wrap alone. The main advantage of using a vacuum packer is that the meat will not dry out or suffer from freezer burn as soon as it would if wrapping in freezer paper.
Venison Deer Meat
Venison is very lean meat, somewhat dry. It can be up to 95% lean. When preparing, remove all the white fat and gristle; the thick silver skin that covers some of the meat. If venison is overcooked or cooked well done, it will dry out and not be very palatable. Over cooking venison may also lead to that “gamey” taste.
Venison Meat Tenderizer
This style tenderizer is great to use on any meat. It has 36 sharp surgical style blades that slice thought the venison, to break up the fibrous celled muscle tissues of the meat.
The Art of Venison Cooking
Cooking flavorful venison recipes is a cooking art that can be learned. I have no culinary training. But after 55 plus years of cooking meats and meals by feel and Instinct – I know I can cook and cook well; my body weight shows that! My wife always brags about my venison meals and tells others that they are missing out on great flavorful venison meals. Over the years my wife has always asked, “Oh that was good! How did you cook that, what did you use in it, and how much?” Well, I finally started writing some recipes down. Try my great recipes for cooking venison. Then tweak ingredients on your own to develop your own style for cooking venison. I do like to keep my cooking simple and do so by not building difficulty into my cooking. By that I mean I most of my seasonings and marinates are of supplies I already have in and around my kitchen. I don’t use ingredients with fancy names that are hard to find or that are known to only culinary chefs. That’s not my style. I prepare my venison to my taste and my preferences. I do like to use tasteful fresh ingredients. My one bit of advice is “don’t overcook your venison!” Remember this when cooking venison, you can always cook your venison a little longer that may turn it into a great venison recipe if needed; but you can’t un-cook your venison to make it great. An example of this would be venison steaks. Tenderize them first, and then marinade them for a few hours in your favorite sauce, liquid, or one that I have recommended. Grill them over medium to hot coals or grilling pan until medium rare (pink and juicy), serve with caramelized/fried onions and/or fresh butter fried whole mushrooms.
Venison Marinates
For extra flavor in a great venison recipe, you can add beef or pork fat. A venison recipe I like to use starts with marinating my venison. It is a great cooking tip is to use a marinate. Marinating is a great way to improve the taste and tenderness of venison. Some marinates are quite simple. These are some of the delicious recipes for venison that I like to use if the taste of my venison seems a little gamey. I will put a small venison roast, 2 to 3 pounds, in a gallon plastic bag; pour in one 12 ounce can of beer and 1/2 cup of vinegar with 1 tablespoons of liquid smoke, or pour in a 12 ounce can of cola with one half cup steak sauce, or use two cups buttermilk with one half cup Roasted Teriyaki Garlic Sauce. Marinate the venison roast using any one of these recipes overnight in the refrigerator. Another venison marinate; trim all fat and gristle, rinse venison with running water, place steaks, chops, or roast in large bowl and pour ginger ale over and cover and let stand in refrigerator for about an hour. Pour off ginger ale, season with my venison rub, or your favorite seasonings, roast or broil in oven to medium or medium rare, about 160 – 170 degrees meat temperature.
Combine all ingredients and refrigerate for 2 hours to combine all flavors. Place Venison in a gallon plastic zip-lock bag and pour marinate over it. Refrigerate for 4 hours before cooking. Baste your venison with the marinate often as you are baking, frying, or grilling.
Venison Cooking Tips
The next day, drain off the marinate. Using a meat roasting pan to cook your venison; wrap your venison roast with several strips of bacon, add a sliced medium onion, some baby carrots, and a can of cream and mushroom soup poured over the top, cover and bake at 325 degrees until done (160-180 degrees meat temperature throughout), about 2 hours. Enjoy with more of your favorite vegetables and hard rolls; yum-yum, and oh so delicious! These are just a few great venison cooking tips that may help with any gamey taste issues of your whitetail deer. If you feel your venison is still a little gamey; pour a can of coke in your roasting pan or crock-pot when you cook it.
Please bookmark this site for more delicious recipes for venison and great cooking tips that you can enjoy at home or at your deer hunting camp on your next hunting trip.
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