DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.

"~patches~" > wrote in message
...
> DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
> to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
> would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
> venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
> It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
> but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.

Juniper berries!!!

',;~}~






Shaun aRe

"~patches~" > wrote in message
...
> DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first
> deer. DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't
> wait to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of
> what I would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's
> stew, venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison
> meatloaf. It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the
> actual recipe but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as
> well as methods.

http://www.deliaonline.com/search/?qx=venison

"~patches~" > wrote in message
...
> DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
> to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
> would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
> venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
> It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
> but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.

Some observations, from my experience with Midwest and Wyoming deer.

Often hunters will improperly prepare the carcass by leaving it out to hang
warm for (and I kid you not) "a few weeks". The carcass needs to be handled
like domestic animals (bled head down, cleaned, cooled) to avoid a "bloody
taste" - or you will be doing a lot of cover-the-taste stewing with extra
bay leaves.

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.

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

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.

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.).

hope it helps.......

Ophelia wrote:

> "~patches~" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first
>>deer. DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't
>>wait to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of
>>what I would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's
>>stew, venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison
>>meatloaf. It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the
>>actual recipe but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as
>>well as methods.
>
>
> http://www.deliaonline.com/search/?qx=venison
>
>
Ophelia, thankyou very much. What a lovely site with a lot of great ideas!

"~patches~" > wrote in message
...
> Ophelia wrote:
>
>> "~patches~" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first
>>>deer. DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I
>>>can't wait to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a
>>>list of what I would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie,
>>>hunter's stew, venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and
>>>venison meatloaf. It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much
>>>for the actual recipe but for what herbs and spices go well with
>>>venison as well as methods.
>>
>>
>> http://www.deliaonline.com/search/?qx=venison
> Ophelia, thankyou very much. What a lovely site with a lot of great
> ideas!

You are most welcome

hob wrote:

> "~patches~" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
>> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
>>to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
>>would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
>>venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
>>It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
>>but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.
>
>
> Some observations, from my experience with Midwest and Wyoming deer.
>
> Often hunters will improperly prepare the carcass by leaving it out to hang
> warm for (and I kid you not) "a few weeks". The carcass needs to be handled
> like domestic animals (bled head down, cleaned, cooled) to avoid a "bloody
> taste" - or you will be doing a lot of cover-the-taste stewing with extra
> bay leaves.

The deer was hung by the time DH called. He said it would be taken to
the abbatoir's in the morning for processing. The two hunters in their
party have hunted since wee lads so know what their doing. DH and the
other bloke are just along for the pics, poker, partying, and food.
Neither hunt or fish and neither have any desire to do so.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.

>
> 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.
>
> hope it helps.......

Thanks so much. It really does help.
>
>
>

"~patches~" > wrote in message
...
> DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait to
> see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I would
> like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew, venison
> sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf. It's time to
> search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe but for what
> herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.

I once had sauerbraten made with venison. Very tasty. But, I have to rain on
your parade, MAYBE. Where do you live? Just read an article indicating that
some deer may be contracting mad cow disease by eating vegetation that's
been urinated on by previously infected animals. I'll find the article,
which indicates the region....

~patches~ wrote:
> [snip]
> Thanks so much. It really does help.

You've gotten good info here. I'll only add that the ground meat mixed
with hamburger 50-50 makes a tasty burger. Don't use too lean burger.

If you ever get a crack at Sitka deer, go for it. Their diet in the SE
Alaska rainforest makes for the best venison ever. -aem

~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.

"pennyaline" > wrote in message
...
> 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.

LOL

Brussels sprouts are wonderful, steamed briefly and then browned in
butter and garlic

~patches~ wrote:
> DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
> to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
> would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
> venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
> It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
> but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.

My son got a 220 pound buck this year - whatever else, have the locker
(butcher boys) make up some deer sausage, which around here, means
similar to "summer sausage." It's not the raw sausage, it's cured, and
has a bunch of other stuff added to it.

N.

Nancy1 wrote:
> My son got a 220 pound buck this year - whatever else, have the locker
> (butcher boys) make up some deer sausage, which around here, means
> similar to "summer sausage." It's not the raw sausage, it's cured, and
> has a bunch of other stuff added to it.

I moved out of London 3 years ago and "roomed" (lodged) with a friend and
her husband for a while, who live in the New Forest.

Hubby left at 5am each morning to drive to London for his job, and often
spotted freshly hit deer by the roadside. In UK law, you can't take it if
you hit it yourself, but you can if anyone - even the car in front - did.

He often slung a deer into the boot [trunk] of the car and on arriving home
at 9pm took it out into the garden, strung it from the washing line, and
home butchered it [another technically illegal thing in today's nanny state
Britain]. Even those he saw by the roadside at 6am, when being processed in
the back garden at 9, were still steaming in mid-winter.... You just cannot
get fresher.

My first meal when I moved in was Roast Roadkill, and as I did the cooking a
lot when I was there, was often trawling the internet for venison recipes.
Most of those I found were for venison steaks, which was not what we had in
the freezer... ours was limited to roughly-hewn pieces/cuts [joints in
UK-speak] but all for free of course and I had nooo problem with that....

We have a lot less deer than you do in the US - (I recall a trip in NW FL
and counting about 20 live whitetails in under 2 hours... here you'd be
lucky to see a wild deer once a week) - so I guess that just made it all the
more special, especially as historically deer in England were reserved for
the nobility and a peasant like me could have been hanged for joining in a
roadkill feast...

Sue
Portsmouth, UK
--
pen-drake location ntl-world-.-com minus hyphens.

Nancy1 wrote:

> ~patches~ wrote:
>
>>DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
>> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
>>to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
>>would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
>>venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
>>It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
>>but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.
>
>
> My son got a 220 pound buck this year - whatever else, have the locker
> (butcher boys) make up some deer sausage, which around here, means
> similar to "summer sausage." It's not the raw sausage, it's cured, and
> has a bunch of other stuff added to it.
>
> N.
>
Nancy, I'm making the sausage myself using curing salt and seasonings.
Making your own cured sausages is surprisingly rather easy to do.

On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:11:49 GMT, "= . . = (EastneyEnder)"
> wrote:

>We have a lot less deer than you do in the US - (I recall a trip in NW FL
>and counting about 20 live whitetails in under 2 hours... here you'd be
>lucky to see a wild deer once a week) - so I guess that just made it all the
>more special, especially as historically deer in England were reserved for
>the nobility and a peasant like me could have been hanged for joining in a
>roadkill feast...

Hi Sue,

For years, a friend who lived in a rural part of New York
State, had his name on the "road-kill list" of his police
department. They would give him a call, he'd pick up the
deer, and the following day, the meat was in his freezer.

That list fed us all for many a winter.

All the best,
--
Kenneth

If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS."

~patches~ wrote:
> Nancy1 wrote:
>
> > ~patches~ wrote:
> >
> >>DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
> >> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
> >>to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
> >>would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
> >>venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
> >>It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
> >>but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.
> >
> >
> > My son got a 220 pound buck this year - whatever else, have the locker
> > (butcher boys) make up some deer sausage, which around here, means
> > similar to "summer sausage." It's not the raw sausage, it's cured, and
> > has a bunch of other stuff added to it.
> >
> > N.
> >
> Nancy, I'm making the sausage myself using curing salt and seasonings.
> Making your own cured sausages is surprisingly rather easy to do.

LOL. My DIL would never let my son make a mess in her kitchen. The
deer sausage this year has a little bit of cheese, some jalapenos, etc.
..... I may even try some. ;-)

N.

Nancy1 wrote:

> ~patches~ wrote:
>
>>Nancy1 wrote:
>>
>>
>>>~patches~ wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>DH called around dinner time last night. The guys got their first deer.
>>>> DH did a fair amount of shooting himself - camera only! I can't wait
>>>>to see the pics and experiment cooking venison. Here's a list of what I
>>>>would like to make - bbq venison steaks, hunter's pie, hunter's stew,
>>>>venison sausage, venison jerky, venison chili, and venison meatloaf.
>>>>It's time to search for a few recipes, not so much for the actual recipe
>>>>but for what herbs and spices go well with venison as well as methods.
>>>
>>>
>>>My son got a 220 pound buck this year - whatever else, have the locker
>>>(butcher boys) make up some deer sausage, which around here, means
>>>similar to "summer sausage." It's not the raw sausage, it's cured, and
>>>has a bunch of other stuff added to it.
>>>
>>>N.
>>>
>>
>>Nancy, I'm making the sausage myself using curing salt and seasonings.
>>Making your own cured sausages is surprisingly rather easy to do.
>
>
> LOL. My DIL would never let my son make a mess in her kitchen. The
> deer sausage this year has a little bit of cheese, some jalapenos, etc.
> ..... I may even try some. ;-)
>
> N.
>
Your DIL really doesn't know what she is missing. How is he to perfect
his cooking style if he isn't allowed to mess in the kitchen? That's
what kitchens are for. DH has messed in the kitchen right from the time
we got married and some things he does better than I do. He quite
capable of creating healthy homecooked meals when I can't. I think this
is good thing. I really enjoy cooking with him too. My kids grew up
cooking from the time they were able to stand. Simple cooking
activities like stirring a bowl of whatever really helps with the eye
hand co-ordination. Yep, she needs to let your son do as he likes in
the kitchen. That sausage sounds interesting. I can't wait to
experiment with the venison! They are home later today.