Venison recipes

[TheTresLeches]

I've never cooked venison before and a co-worker gave me venison: chili meat, stew meat, ham steaks and back straps.

Obviously I know what to do with the chili meat. Does anyone have a favorite recipe for the other pieces, particularly the ham steaks and back straps?

 

[SA Missions Man]

the ham steaks can be cooked just like chicken fried steak. One very important thing........soak wild game in milk for about 24 hours before cooking. It draws out the excess blood and as a result most if not all of the gaminess that you will find in venison. Picked up my own buck from the prosessor yesterday. The jalapeno cheese summer sausage is unbelievable!

 

[ryskey]

You can also batter and pan fry the backstrap. Although some people consider that strange because it kind of hides the flavor of the best meat. I like it though.

And I only let pieces soak for about 30 minutes. Tenderizing is the most important part (although I guess the milk would do that for you if you soaked for 24hrs). God damn that **** is good. I need to shoot a deer.

I've also done the whole wrap-in-bacon-and-marinate-and-throw-on-the-grill thing with the backstrap, but that's not really a recipe, just a way of cooking it.. Also damn good..

One time I got a little ambitious and made some high-falutin' mushroom and wine sauce. Googled that recipe. It was good, but I prefer fried.

Never done anything different other than fry ham steaks.

 

[SA Missions Man]

I like cooking my backstraps whole. Purely for the reason that I believe that overcooking backstrap should be considered a criminal offense. One way to do it is to get a skillet red hot. Add butter and sliced onions. Melt the butter and pan fry the onions until they start to sort of carmelize.......add a little brown sugar. Take your backstrap that you have coated in fajita seasoning and place it in the skillet. Do not puncture the meat. Use tongs and continually rotate the meat. Evenly searing the outside of it. Continue doing this until the backstrap is cooked evenly all the way around. Very important!..........leave the center of the backstrap pink! Even a little blood isnt bad. After you get it this way......you can then let it cool in the fridge. After it has cooled pull it out and cut one of the ends off and then start slicing thin medallions off of the backstrap. It eats like prime rib! A little horseradish sauce with it is great. Take the end and attach it to what is left with toothpicks and put it back in the fridge. You can eat on this thing for several days like that without it drying out.

 

[TheTresLeches]

So for the ham steaks, would you pound em with a meat tenderizer like you would a piece of beef before making chicken friend steak?

 

[Pepper Brooks]

For the back straps I usually pound them pretty thin. I sautee some spinach, shallot, garlic, red pepper until soft. I combine that with some gorgonzola cheese and stuff the flat backstrap with the mixture. Tie with kitchen twine, sear the back strap in olive oil and finish in the oven.

 

[NickDanger]

Last week I took some muscled out axis ham and pounded it flat and stuffed it with some panko and a compound sage butter and tied it. Then I rolled it in an egg wash and panko and pan-fried it. It was very tasty.

I also have done them with the following:

 NILGAI (Venison) BACKSTRAP

Nilgai or Venison Backstrap
12 oz. Mushrooms, sliced
1 stick Butter
1/2 cup dry Vermouth
3 or 4 cloves Garlic, minced
2 oz. Brandy or Cognac
1 medium Onion, chopped fine
2 oz. Marsala wine
1 cup Chicken stock
1 tsp. Tarragon
1 tsp. Basil
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks, beaten well
Salt and Pepper

Slice backstrap into medallions while still partially frozen.
Let thaw in milk for several hours. Brown meat in 1/2 the Butter in pot large enough to accommodate all the meat later. Remove meat and add garlic and onion, sauteing until soft. Add Brandy or Cognac and light until it burns itself out. Add Stock, Vermouth, Basil, Tarragon and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and return meat to dish. Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes.

While meat is cooking, saute mushrooms in the rest of the
Butter and Marsala for 10 minutes. Add Egg yolks and cream to mushrooms and remove from heat after a minute or two.

After meat is done, remove from pot and add mushroom mixture to cooking liquid. Heat for several minutes, without boiling, and then top cooked meat with the sauce and serve.

 

[98HornGirl]

The CFS I grew up on was made from backstap. Cut into small pieces, pound them to about a third of an inch with a meat tenderizer, dip in seasonded flour, then egg, then seasoned flour again, and fry in a cast-iron skillet with about a 1/4 inch of melted Crisco. Set aside the pieces as you make them, then scrape the bottom of the pan, add flour and milk (about a tablespoon of flour to each cup of milk) to make cream gravy. Mmmmm!