Deer Tenderloin/Backstrap

S

Stuck_At_Work

1,000+ Posts
My buddy (who hunts) brought me back some deer tenderloin and some backstrap. I've never cooked this stuff before. What should I do with it? My buddy was of no help as his 'wife does all the cooking.'

I tried doing a search and it kept erroring out on me... so apologies if this has been posted recently.
 
Just about anything. It is a good meat.

My favorite:

Soak it in milk (removes the gamey taste the more you soak it -- allegedly). Then fry it -- chicken fried venison steaks.

Some grill it.
 
Salt, pepper and pan sear quickly with some butter yummy. Chickfried venison is the meat of the God's, but I have a hard time bringin myself to chickenfry backstrap. Use another lower quiality cut of meat if you have it, or f it and just use the backstrap if that is all you got. Some pan gravy, mashed tators and a side of bacon cooked green beans and you can nearly hear the angelic harps being strummed in the background.
 
Cut it into little medallions and chicken fry it. Make a little gravy and some mashed potatoes...
bounce.gif
 
I saw this on the food network.

Slice backstrap down the middle to open it up and lay it flat. Place boudin in the middle, then bring sides back together and tie the backstrap with string. Salt and pepper outside, then lay pieces of bacon over the top and grill it.
 
Venison chili is tough to beat too. It's so lean that you may have to add some suet,lard, or oil when searing.

We've also done venison shish kabobs with onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms. Soaking in milk or buttermilk does help the gamey taste.
 
Second the soaking in milk/buttermilk. Unless you do this, you're going to have some gameyness. Some, though, like the "wild" flavor. I do not. Also, my mother-in-law, who is a helluva cook, swears by leaving the meat in the 'frig for almost a week before cooking it.
 
Actually the best thing I have found (even better than milk) is to brine the backstrap overnight. Pulls a lot of blood and gamey-ness out.

Agree with venison chili...cut the backstrap into little chunks and it's really good! However, backstrap/tenderloin is too good to put into chili unless you have a boatload of it.
 
I've had it many ways--I like grilled the best-- marinate in Ken's Balsamic and Montreal steak seasning-- a day or 2

wrap w/ bacon and skewer ( turkey bacon if fanatical)-- grill on high heat to a rare or medium rare-- not more than that


I gave some to my neighor and he said It was the best wild game he had ever eaten-- and he lives off of dove and duck
 
Well... I ended up doing a bit of experimenting. I butterflied the tenderloin very thinly. Then I rubbed unflavored yogurt on the tenderloin and left it in the fridge to take away the gamey taste as this was very wild vension. Then comes the experimental part. Instead of boudin as suggested above, I purchased a chipotle pork sausage at Whole Foods, cooked it lightly in boiling water, and then sliced the sausage in half lengthwise. I wrapped the tenderloin around the sausage and breaded them in a spicy chicken fried steak breading trying to keep each serving as thin as possible to simplify frying them. Then I cheated a bit and took some organic blueberry jam and blended it with flour and water to create a sweet glaze for the chicken fried venison & sausage. I'm not sure why I did all that, but it certainly went over well with my dinner guests. Very rarely does my experimentation turn out well, but I'm very please this time around.
 
No. That is probably blasphemy, but my girlfriend is not a venison fan so she was very pleased.

I only cooked the tenderloin. I still have some backstrap that I may cook more traditionally.
 
I like the use of yogurt and also the blueberry jam with wild game, but for the backstrap go a more traditional route and try the chicken fried venison tenders people have suggested.

Soak the backstrap in buttermilk, cut it into 'fingers', and get a box of Kentucky Kernel seasoned flour (Central Market , HEB). You can bread your tenders liberally in the seasoning and still have plenty left to mix with butter and real cream to make a dynamite white gravy.

Damn, I am hungry now.
 
I'm told that many make deer sausage by mixing it 1 to 1 with pork into a German style sausage link.

I've also heard that a good deer chili is delicious. I've only tried the first option before.
 
1.Take the backstrap and cut them to where you take the two ends and roll them together and connect with a shiskabob stick to where they look like a 6 oz filet.

2. Wrap the filiets in a good pepper bacon

3. Put filets in pyrex dish and liberally pour Wishbone Italian until the dressing goes about half way up the filet.

4. Fairly liberally pour soy sauce on top of the filets about 6-8 pulls on the soy bottle.

5. Coat the top of the filet with molasses but don't over do it. This will give it a wonderful sweetness.

6. Sprinkle the top with cayenne pepper.

Cover and put in fridge overnight. When you wake up, turn filets over and put the molasses and cayenne on top. Recover and return to fridge

When you get home take out and get filets to somewhat room temp. Grill on medhigh heat and DON'T OVERCOOK. Med rare is about 12-14 minutes.

I baste them but some people say you don't have to. This recipe will knock your dick in the dirt and is a must for all hunters.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top