With deer season concluding at the end of the month and freezers filled or filling with venison far and wide, there’s no time like the present to begin preparing nature’s harvest for the table, and there’s no method more flexible than one that begins with a grind.
Ground venison works well in anything. It makes good chili, Hamburger Helper or spaghetti. You can pat it out and cook it like hamburgers. In fact, with ground meat, it can completely replace ground beef in any recipe.
Meat from wild game is extremely lean. Hunters who’ve had their deer processed professionally almost certainly have burger in the freezer that has had fat added to it.
Most processors offer to incorporate beef fat or pork fat at the rate of 10% or 20% by weight. Think of the percentage of lean the same way it’s expressed with ground beef at the grocery store. A mix that has nine pounds of deer ground together with one pound of fat is 90% lean.
For hunters who’ve done their own processing, meat that has been frozen without being ground can be thawed, ground and re-frozen without concern. Adding pork fat is especially easy, since breakfast meats can be counted almost entirely toward the total. Both bacon and breakfast sausage are all but solid fat. Nine pounds of deer ground together with one pound of breakfast sausage could be considered 97% lean or so. Plus, the sausage adds some baseline seasoning. Whether the grind you’re creating is intended for burger patties, snack sticks, spaghetti, lasagna or anything else, a pound of breakfast sausage added to a few pounds of pure deer muscle on a grind is a great way to add just the right amount of flavor and workability to any blend. The breakfast sausage won’t be enough flavor to horn its way in to spaghetti or any non-breakfast dish you’re cooking, but it will get key salt and pepper embedded in the mix, which you’ll season further and more specifically as you go.
To add fat on the grind, slice the deer meat into small cubes and strips as much as possible before the initial grind, then run it through the grinder. Once it’s all been through once, knead and mix the results again by hand, then send it through the grinder a second time to get a well-homogenized mix.
Light the fire
Venison burgers containing added fat do very well on the grill alongside traditional beef burger and other domestically-raised meats. Venison medallions or filets, however, require a great deal of care and benefit from a different approach over the open flame.
Much healthier than a deep fry, the grilling method works well for tenderloin, sliced backstrap and even steaks sliced from major muscle groups when undertaken carefully, and that care begins with the fire itself. Regardless of marinade, lean cuts of big game will quickly become tough if overcooked, and a grill tuned to sear a grocery store’s heavily-marbled beef ribeye is just the tool to overcook it.
There are so many variables in play it’s hard to put a precise temperature on it, but about half as hot as a regular steak-cooking setup is a good place to start. Even then the fire won’t have to last long, because medium rare is not only the goal, it’s about the maximum amount of cooking the meat can tolerate.
Whatever the grill temperature, you’re looking for a very quick sear and nothing more. As good as grilling is, if you have to have yours cooked anywhere close to “medium” or beyond, you’ll do better cooking it another way. This is no spiteful remark aimed at people who don’t care for rare meat, but simply a comment of fact. If a deer steak is not left with a good bit of pink or more, it will likely not be enjoyable at the table. Those who prefer their deer steak well done should do it Salisbury style in a slow cooker or something similar.
Making sausage
Venison sausages typically contain a good bit more fat and have a much wider margin for error beyond the point of safety, minimally done, and so do as well on the grill as burgers.
First, the ultimate quality of the meat once it reaches the table is determined in a large part by how it’s handled in the field. Especially early in the season when the weather is still warm, deer should be cooled very quickly.
If you’re delivering the deer to a processor, leaving the hide on can help protect the meat and keep it clean. If you’re going to process the deer yourself, when you skin the deer is up to you, but it should be kept cool and dry.
Marinades add flavor and tenderize, but they don’t change cooking times. No matter how unchallenging a deer’s life may seem, they are genetically predisposed to be wild animals. As such, they are muscular and very lean.
Deer do not carry fat the same way cattle do. A deer’s fat is deposited in tallow here and there about their bodies, not combined with muscle. What’s more, it has a comparatively high melting point and is not good to eat. No matter how well fed they may be, steaks cut from their muscles will always be terrifically lean. Because it is so low in fat, then, it’s also easy to overcook. Venison steak is great on the grill, but if you need it cooked past the rare side of medium rare, you should opt for a crock pot or slow cooker instead.
Here are a few favorite recipes that will be welcome in any kitchen or hunting camp:
• Any way you slice it, fried foods will always be a favorite of the South, and deer hunters are no exception. The outer loin, commonly called the backstrap, makes for some of the simplest preparation found anywhere on the deer. Sliced thin, tenderized, breaded and fried, this is one that is very easy to do. Before you slice the loin, make sure all the exterior silver membrane has been removed. Filet this off with a sharp, flexible knife, ensuring the end product has a dull appearance rather than a high, glossy sheen. Then you’re ready to go to work.
• Summer sausage is a great way to prepare deer, and it’s something offered in one form or another by most deer processors. Supposedly, once thawed and sliced, it will keep in the refrigerator for several days, though its popularity as a snack makes testing this theory difficult.
• Venison jerky, from the processor or homemade, is a great way to use the extra-lean meat found on the front shoulder.
• A whole shoulder of venison, deboned, marinated, injected and slow-cooked makes excellent sandwiches. The meat stays moist and falls apart like pulled pork.
• Sliced deer steak, marinated in equal parts soy and Worcestershire sauce, is wrapped with hickory-smoked bacon on the outside, jalapeno peppers and cream cheese on the inside, pinned with a tooth pick and grilled over a slow fire.
• Ground meat, or burger, is just as flexible as ground beef when it’s been combined with a percentage of beef or pork fat to help it stick together. It can be patted out and grilled as burgers or used in any dish that would call for ground beef.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
