what to do with fresh venison

[DougGuy]

Since no one has mentioned crock pot, here is how I do mine..

2 pkgs Lipton Recipe Secrets soup mix, you can mix golden onion, beefy onion, onion mushroom etc... Mix in enough water to cover the meat + about an inch. Taste the broth, you want it plenty strong and salty. Cook on High about 5 hours, until a fork breaks off pieces of the meat easily.

(You can mix in a few good shakes of Wonder flour now, or you can wait until after the meat cooks and take some of the broth, heat it in a skillet and whisk in wonder flour and water as necessary to make gravy.)

My favorite trick is to mix in about 1 1/2 TBSP of Alessi Raspberry Infused Balsamic Vinegar (I think they label it Raspberry Blush now) and it will impart a wonderful raspberry flavor and aroma to the gravy. If you don't think raspberry and a hearty beefy gravy don't go together you haven't LIVED! This stuff is TONGUE SLAPPIN' YO JAWS GOOD!

Serve this with some Sister Shubert's yeast rolls, OMG you can have the meat, give me the biscuits and GRAVY!

[dale2242]

Here`s how we process our venison.
We do not have a cool room so the meat is hung in the shop for no more than 4 days depending on the temperature.
If the temperature is warmer than 40* it is quartered and placed in the fridge.
All the meat is boned out and muscle masses are separated so the meat can be cut across grain.
Tenderloin is removed first and steaked out.
Shoulders are removed and made into roasts or steaked out for swiss, fajitas, stew, etc.
Backstraps are removed cleaned of silver and steaked out for pan fry.
Ribs are removed and boned out for grind.
Hind quarters are removed, muscles separated and steaked out for pan fry.
The neck is removed and boned out for grind.
All smaller pieces are cut for stew or fajitas.
Scraps are used for grind.
Pork fat or bacon can be added to the grind for making patties.
Grind can be made into any number of sausages by adding whatever seasonings.

[Thumbcocker]

Backstrap: season with garlic powder, meat tenderize, and black pepper. Let sit overnight in the fridge. Slather with olive oil and grill over hardwood charcoal until just a little pink in the middle. DO NOT OVER COOK. It will be the best meat you have ever eaten.

Jerky: can be made with ground or straps of deer. For ground use low salt soy sauce, Mrs. Dash, garlic powder and black pepper. Mix everything together in a bowl with your hands. Test out the flavor by taking a small amount and pan frying it. A pice rge diameter of a tangerine is plenty. Adjust spices to your taste. Pat out meat on a cutting board by the handful until it is about 1/4" thick. Place in dehydrator until it is fully dry. An acquaintance of mine went for the commercial Jerky texture (which is full of nitrites) and had all the meat mould. Dry means dry. I have found a bag of Jerky in my truck console that was there for several months that was still tasty. Dry is important.

Strip Jerky: cut meat in 1/4" strips WITH THE GRAIN and season as with ground. Let it sit overnight. Place in dehydrator. Dry until DRY.

Deer burgers: one pound ground deer one package of onion soup mix. Mix together and form into patties. Put each patty on a piece of aluminum foil. Put some olive oil on each patty and wrap in the foil. Put on a grill with hardwood charcoal. After a few minutes the patties will plump up. Take off the grill and remove from the foil. Put the patties back on the grill until done. Best burgers you can get.

There is nothing mysterious about venison. It is meat. It is very lean meat so don't over cook it. Personally I never fry it.

[Tripplebeards]

I Normally age mine in the fridge or cooler for a week before cutting it up. Gives it a change to drain all blood out which imo gives it a “gamey” taste. Back straps I don’t age and they still taste great. I use to grind mine onto burger myself until I found out the local butcher charged my pops $34 to grind up 27 pounds of boneless venison. He added 3 pounds of beef tallow and sealed it in 1 pound bags for that price too! He ended up with 30 pounds of 1 pound vacuumed sealed bag venison burger for $34! I took over 7 pounds and go 9 back and paid $11! I make my own jerky with some. I also just cut ALOT up into small steaks. Been fonduing it lately. Good stuff! I wouldn’t give your poor dog the head. I won’t feed my dog anything I wouldn’t eat. I am currently making venison liver jerky as we speak. I made liver pate out of my other deer from this year. Was something new to try. Cooked it with onions and then threw it in a blender till smooth. I added cream cheese to the mix and sprinkled caramelized onions on top…along with a little plastic deer and pine tree.lol. Very good but a little strong. Made it for a Christmas get together. Everyone liked it. I will stuff the back traps with onions and cream cheese then wrap them in bacon. Plenty of good things to make without spending hundreds to get it processed. Imo by the time you get sausage, wieners, and ring baloney made it doesn’t taste like deer and cost more than top grade Sirloin at the grocery store. I can remember when I was a kid my parents would spend hundreds (and complain) every year getting deer processed into sausage, ect. Then they would get sick of eating it and give most of it away. Lol

I have some picky eaters so I marinade my fondue venison pieces with virgin oil for a day or two first. Removes any “gamey taste”. I had burgers, BBQ, meatballs with the burger I had processed so far and you would think it’s beef. Some like that “gamey deer” taste but I don’t. So far this week I had venison fondue twice, venison burritos twice, and venison meatballs! Good stuff!!!

[CastingFool]

I find that processing a deer yourself is a lot of work, especially if you don't have the proper equipment an/or location. I've only processed 3 deer so far, all 3 were roadkills, in front of our house. We live on a country road. Fortunately, I know a local processor that is happy to take all my firearm killed deer. He does a good job, he's prompt and his price is fair. Besides, he has to make a living, too, and I'm blessed to call him my friend. He also processes maple sap on 50/50 shares, in the spring. Last spring, I took about 170 gallons of sap to him, and got 1-1/2 gal of syrup back.

[farmbif]

after trying to hunt down a meat grinder and sausage stuffer and then found a little local slaughter house/butcher. I cut out tenderloin and let him mix the rest with a big pork butt and make sausage out of it.
not that I don't like learning how to do new things but I thought letting an expert help out and getting a whole bunch of kryovaced bags ready for the freezer will ensure nothing goes to waste and its all done properly for much future enjoyment.

[Smoke4320]

deer sausage can be good but he will need to get the fat content up
pork butt usually runs 30 to 35% fat . mix 50/50 deer pork butt and you have a fat content of closer to 15 to 17%
Makes for some very lean dry sausage

[farmbif]

the guy that's doing it knows what he is doing, and me. I dont, that's why I thought it best and easiest to drop it off with an expert, one of the first things he said was he keeps lots of pork fat in freezer for making venison sausage.

[Doog-Meister]

For sausage, get pork fat from the butcher, or ask the meat counter at the grocery store. They may have to get it back to you in a day or two. I use beef fat for ground venison. use 20% for sausage, @ 12-15% for burger. The big box sporting goods stores sell a hand grinder that works quite well on deer or feral pigs.

hind quarters are good for steaks or roasts. Backstrap and tenderloins are for the grill. Front shoulders, neck, and flanks become ground meat or jerky. Nothing better than processing your own free-range, organic meat. I learned (i.e. taught myself) when I was much younger and there wasn't money to pay someone else to do it for me. Never looked back.

[Bentstick]

Shoot, track (if need be), gut (save heart), get home hung up in pole barn skin out (while still warm), pull back straps, let hang for 5-7 days if weather does not freeze it up, qt it up bring to house and muscle it out, hinds make steaks, roasts, front shoulders get corned, trims or if a rutting buck get ground, seasoned and stuffed or make breakfast sausage, have done it that way and on kitchen counters for 40 + yrs have done it the same, only difference being the help I have had, wife now of the last 23 yrs usually has it dose the main cutting and grinding while I am working then on the weekend we make sausage. always the day of harvest its a Heart and backstrap supper meat is egged floured and pan fried in butter with cast Iron skillet with side of homemade biskets and gravy, and fried po-taters with peppers onions and garlic, nothing like deer season and fresh kill in the big woods.

[farmbif]

since this is back up
a few days ago I got a cooler full of cryovac packages from the butcher. its an outstanding sausage, they use leggs spice mix to blend the venison with pork meat and fat to make a really great sausage. I gave away a bunch of packs to the widow lady down the road and still filled the freezer. sausage eggs and hash browns yesterday, sausage and biscuits today, we might experiment with sausage, egg and cheese pie.

[Scrounge]

well I finally did it, got me a nice doe today. I'm really not much of an experienced deer hunter so I let my neighbor help dress it out and we cut it up and gave them half. not much room in the fridge and no place to hang it where wild critters would not get at it. so I cut the half in a 3 pieces ribs and hind quarter and shoulder and put in bag in a cooler with couple bags of ice. tomorrow what should I do? some say cut out back strap cut the rest thin and make jerky. season and smoke the ribs? I got the head in a bag and that I was gonna give to the dog to chew on.
some say the meat has to age a week or more to be any good. I'm no expert but I know there are lots here that have more experience than I could ever dream of having.

Chili is a good choice, and the venison doesn't need to be aged, if you don't have time to age it.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

since this is back up
a few days ago I got a cooler full of cryovac packages from the butcher. its an outstanding sausage, they use leggs spice mix to blend the venison with pork meat and fat to make a really great sausage. I gave away a bunch of packs to the widow lady down the road and still filled the freezer. sausage eggs and hash browns yesterday, sausage and biscuits today, we might experiment with sausage, egg and cheese pie.

Just ate dinner and you are making me hungry!

[10x]

Steps in preparing venison.
Make sure the deer has a quick death.
Field dress and cool the meat to below 40F as soon as possible
Hang to get the blood out. 12 to 24 hours.
For a mule deer a breeding buck in rut will have flavour in the meat.

My friend and I have cut out the backstraps and tenderloins within an hour of field dressing and cooked properly (Rare or as tartar) they are as tasty and tender as venison that has been aged a week or two weeks.
Most folk overcook venison at too high a temperature.
Cooking time and temperature depends on the cut.
My wife loves the shanks cooked Osso buco (275F for 4 to 5 hours).
after over 30 years of shooting mule deer and turning it into sausage and biltong jerky my wife has decided that it is a gourmet treat .
Back straps, cut into 1 inch medalians, browned, then into the oven at 275F for 10 minutes while a pink pepper sauce is made in the pan, then the medalians are sliced to 1/4" strips and served with the pepper sauce and either mashed potato and a green are incredibly tasty
Still rare inside, can be cut with your fork, and are not dried out and chewy.

[WinchesterM1]

I make chicken fried Bambi out of the back straps!

[Yooper003]

Every one of these ideas is good. My recommendation is to try a lot of them to determine what you & family like best. As this is your first time you are goi g to have more scraps so you will probably have more to grind which is no problem. Chilli , meatloaf.sausage & burgers.you don’t need s stuffer & casing’s to make sausages.tight rolled 1# logs work well.the canning idea is also very good. Easy & versatile.

[BJK]

My $.02 worth but here it is for free. Probably worth as much too, but it's my experience.

So how do commercial butcher operations treat their beef and other animals? They slaughter and cool the carcasses immediately. No hanging to age, aging means spoilage. Aged meat happens under very special conditions. Want "gamey" venison? Age it. If it tastes gamey you're tasting spoilage. As a child a neighbor would give us aged venison and I hated it. I thought it tasted like exactly what it was, rotten meat. As an adult getting my own deer and processing it myself venison was really good. No aging. Let the carcass cool, or process it immediately warm and allow the packages to cool. As an adult I had a neighbor and he'd hang his deer for quite awhile. I can't imagine how gag worthy that meat was.

Sausage making isn't difficult folks. Many mixers come with attachments that will do it. Our Ankarsrum grinder will grind conservatively 300#/hr but to do that requires 3 people, the grinder grinds to fast. Just get recipes and stick to them. Or buy mixes and stick to the directions. It's really not difficult. As previously written less than 20% fat makes for a dry sausage. 20% is what you want to strive for. That will be juicy but not be overly fatty. Burger can be less, I try for 15% for a good balance.

[JWFilips]

I like fresh venison Pan fried rare! Tenderloins cut 3/4 inch thick. Hot cast iron pan! Slab of butter and 1 minute per side!
Same with the steaks! Do not over cook! If you do you need to sauté for at least an hour to get their tenderness back!
Sliced Deer heart the same as the first note for tenderloins! You will never have a tastier cut of meat!

[hoodat]

For me, most everything that can be cut cross-grain, get cut and cooked that way. And I don't over cook. Quick and simple in butter and a little garlic, and leave some pink in it. -- sometimes even medium rare.

I've also quit hanging for any length of time. I used to find myself trimming off twenty or more pounds of dark and unusable crust for the garbage waste.

If I wind up with cuts that are tough, I just give em the oven/mushroom soup treatment. That will turn any critter into a succulent meal. jd

[JWFilips]

For me, most everything that can be cut cross-grain, get cut and cooked that way. And I don't over cook. Quick and simple in butter and a little garlic, and leave some pink in it. -- sometimes even medium rare.

I've also quit hanging for any length of time. I used to find myself trimming off twenty or more pounds of dark and unusable crust for the garbage waste.

If I wind up with cuts that are tough, I just give em the oven/mushroom soup treatment. That will turn any critter into a succulent meal. jd

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