Venison is the generic term for meat from a large group of related grazing animals. It includes caribou, reindeer, deer, moose and elk. For all practical purposes it also includes musk oxen, antelope and buffalo [bison]. The recipes are generally interchangeable. musk oxen and buffalo cuts tend to be more tender as these animals are more sedentary by nature.
You can do anything with venison that you would beef. Just remember that it is drier- less fat, so steaks should be marinaded/tenderized/pounded and cooked just to medium, not over-done.
It is important to realize that wild meat can vary in quality and toughness, whereas commercial beef is a pretty uniform product. Venison factors are:
1: Age and sex of animal. Meat can be as tender and mild as veal in a young doe. (And you always get steer meat in a store never bull. Castration does make a difference.)
2: Clean kill. If a deer is stalked while it is peacefully grazing and dropped dead in its tracks, it will taste far better than an animal that has been chased by hounds, then gut shot, then it runs a few more miles before collapsing. The blood is full of adrenaline and the acidic by-products of exercise and exertion and the flesh is tainted by the torn up organs.
3: Aging and butchering. When I was a kid growing up in Eastern Ontario, we went deer hunting in the fall, when it was cool and deer were hung to age and tenderize, then butchered at a local abattoir that handled beef and pork professionally. We received nicely wrapped, properly cut and trimmed frozen packages. It was generally pretty good. Up here caribou is shot all year long and traditionally butchered immediately [before it spoils in the summer or freezes solid in the winter] And some hunters are more skilled at butchering than others... I have been made "gifts" of quarters of caribou that have been field frozen with the fur on and wrapped in green garbage bags and stored in somebody's back yard for a month or two! I have also received superb sausages made by a man who apprenticed as a sausage-maker in Germany.
If you know where your meat came from, you will know whether it should tenderized or just cooked.
If your steaks are coming from a commercial game farm, they will be from a young animal, carefully slaughtered and aged. I would treat them the same as any prime beef T-bone. Probably charcoal bbq'd or gas grilled to just medium rare and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper after it has been cooked... nothing fancy, no marinades and no strong bbq sauces. That way you will be able to truly taste the venison.
For wild meat you may want to marinade first, if it's tough.
Elk Tenderloin With Brandy Mustard Sauce
2 elk tenderloins -- 8-10 oz
1 each
1 sliced bacon
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon grey poupon mustard
1/4 cup onion -- finely diced
1/4 cup bell pepper -- diced
1/2 cup brown gravy
1 1/2 oz brandy
1 clove garlic
1 thyme
1 ground black pepper
Remove silverskin from tenderloins and rub meat with split garlic cloves. Sprinkle lightly with thyme and black pepper. Wrap bacon around tenderloin and use toothpick to secure. Place in hot frypan and saute until bacon is cooked. Note: tenderloins should not be cooked past medium rare. Remove from pan and pour off excess grease. Place onion and bell pepper in pan for 30 seconds, add mushrooms and saute until tender.
Elk or Deer Sauerbraten
3 lb elk or deer
2 1/2 cup vinegar
3 cup water
2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 lemon sliced
6 whole cloves
3 bay leaves
6 whole black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fat
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
Place meat in a large bowl; add vinegar, water, onions, cloves, pepper and salt. Let meat stand 48 hours in refrigerator, turning occasionally. Remove meat, brown in hot fat. Remove meat and add flour, brown and add 2 cups vinegar marinade mixture; cook until mixture thickens. Add meat and simmer for two hours. Remove, slice meat and pour gravy over meat.
Recipe From: Agricultural Extension Service The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture
Radish greens are good cooked as a pot herb and have a flavor similar to Chinese parsley or Cilantro.
Combine all ingredients and shape by hand into a loaf. Place in a bread pan and cook in a preheated oven at 375°F for 50-60 min or til browned and juices bubbling.
Crema de champiñones y apio
250 gramos de champiñones
Unas gotas de zumo de limon
Un corazón de apio blanco
30 gramos de mantequilla
Un litro de caldo de ave
Dos yemas de huevo
Un vaso pequeño de nata liquida
Sal y pimienta
Preparación
Limpie los champiñones en agua fría con unas gotas de limon y córtelos en laminas finas, así como el apio.
En una cacerola ponga la mantequilla a derretir y rehogue en ella el apio y los champiñones durante siete minutos.
Añada el caldo, que deberá estar hirviendo, salpimiente y deje que cueza cuarenta y cinco minutos.
Pasado este tiempo páselo por la batidora, pruebe, rectifique de sal y pimienta si fuera necesario y pase la crema a una sopera, donde previamente habrá puesto las yemas de huevo.
Añada la nata liquida, remueva y sirva enseguida.
Cream of mushrooms and celery
250 grams of mushrooms
Some drops of juice of lemon
A heart of white celery
30 grams of butter
A ckicken broth liter
Two yolks of egg
A small glass of milk cream
Salt and pepper
Preparation
Clean the mushrooms in cold water with some drops of lemon and cut them in thin slices, as well as the celery.
In a pan put the butter to melt and sauté the celery and the mushrooms for seven minutes.
Add the broth, that should have been boiling, season and leave that cook forty-five minutes.
Pass it for the mixer, test, rectify of salt and pepper if was necessary and put the cream into a soup tureen, where previously have been put the yolks.
Add the milk cream, remove and serve immediately.
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