Thread: Venison
View Single Post
  #10 (permalink)   Report Post  
Posted to rec.food.cooking
pennyaline
 
Posts: n/a
Default Venison

~patches~ wrote:
> hob wrote:
>> Venison takes on the taste of what the deer ate - mule deer from
>> sagebrush
>> areas have a "piney" taste, whitetails from corn country are mild.
>> Taste a
>> meal of the meat before spicing and THEN use your judgment - or you might
>> get juniper-on-pine flavor.

>
> The hunt camp is about 15 min from Huntsville, Ontario up near Algonquin
> Provincial Park. I think a piney taste will be more likely given the area.


Probably not, given that area. The meat gets "piney" when sage and scrub
are practically all there is to graze on. In your region, there is
plenty of grass and mild vegetation, so you'll likely find that your
venison is quite mild.

We get mule deer here that have grazed almost exclusively on brush and
sage. The flavor of our venison is pronouncedly brushy.



>> Venison has a high temperature fat that clings to the top of your
>> mouth if
>> the meat is not served hot (warmed plate!)

>
> Oh, that is good to know!
>
>>
>> The meat is kind of dry. Thus it benefits from a "wet fat" like butter or
>> pork fat.
>>
>> The chops are fried thru (it is wild meat) kind of like pork but not
>> overcooked and served hot.(I prefer frying it in butter or
>> butter/lard) The
>> restaurant trick of a bit of clear melted butter brushed on top just
>> before
>> pulling it from the pan helps
>> Mint jelly is an excellent "garnish". .
>>
>> The ground meat needs to have most of the fat removed before grinding,
>> and
>> suet added in its place, or it ends up kind of oddly dry to the palate.
>>
>> Dried venison is excellent. We used to have the processor put the carcass
>> into chops and a couple steaks, have the haunches dried, and the rest
>> ground. (He shaved the dried for us)
>>
>> Anything other than chops: trim the fat to minimum and fry it in butter.

>
> Thanks for the butter tip. I likely would have used olive oil but will
> use butter instead. I have a couple of jars of mint jelly so that will
> be great. Here I thought mint jelly was mainly for lamb. I'll stop at
> the butchershop for so suet too.


Plum jelly is quite good with venison, too.



>> Sausages are quite dry - any palatable we had were those where the
>> venison
>> was mixed with fatty pork. (I always wondered how venison sausage
>> would turn
>> out with heavy cream/bacon added. Never tried it, though.).

>
> Ok, that is very useful information so I'll pick up some ground pork as
> well. One of the guys in our boating group makes venison sausage.
> Apparently it is supposed to be quite good. I'm kicking myself for not
> asking for the recipe right then and there. I don't have his contact
> info but can get it going through a chain of people. I'm sure he'll
> share his recipe.


Venison sausage is delicious when made right. You absolutely must add
fat, as has been said, and you must observe the flavors already existing
in the meat and be careful with the traditional sausage seasonings 'else
you end up with too much sage and so on. The texture is different from
pork and poultry-based sausage, but the flavor is wonderful.

And okay, I'll admit it. After my rant against Brussels sprouts a while
back, I confess that there was one occasion when I ate them and loved
them, served with braised venison.