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From: Angelo’s Collection

Hunting the Whitetail deer in Western New York was always a favorite sport of mine and something to look forward to each year.  Some close friends and I hunted the south western New York region of the State with some native wood cutters.  They were down to earth and fun to be with and took their hunting very seriously.  They always had a party of 15 to 20 hunters for opening day and that may or may not have included women.  When I started hunting with them I couldn’t believe their skills in the woods.  The first year I hunted with them they had spotted a deformed grossly looking deer in the woods and had decided to go back for it after the days hunt.  They contacted the Game Warden and went into the woods that night after dark and came back out with it in less than an hour.  I told myself then and their that I was going to be paying very close attention.  Insolently the report came back from the DEC a week later stating the massive bulges causing the deformities were fatty tumors.

In the years I hunted with my friends and them I learned to shoot with both eyes open and became a near expert tracker – I say “near” because I feel there is always room for improvement.  The point is that, when I was hunting I had venison every year.  This gave me the opportunity to accumulate and develop enough recipes to write a book with just venison recipes, and may do so one day.

The biggest mistake one makes when preparing venison is to think because it’s a wild animal it needs to be cured or prepared in some special way to kill the gamey taste.  The fact is it has no gamey taste in most cases.  I say this because I harvested a deer from a pine lot one time that must have been raised one pine buds.  The flesh smelled like a Christmas tree and tasted like it was marinated in turpentine.  So there are exceptions to the rule.

The Whitetail is related to the goat, or sheep family and should be treated like lamb or mutten.  It has tallow like lamb or sheep.  Tallow was and can be used to make candles, it does not freeze and when cooked leaves a film on your lips like lamb chops.  The fact that the tallow does not freeze is why all State Hunting Syllabus’s I have read tell you trim all fat possible and not store in excess o f four months.  Since the tallow does not freeze it not completely trimmed before freezing the meat will start to taste rancid after that period of time.

I have kept venison frozen for six and seven months with 95% of the tallow removed before noticing it start to develop a stronger, what some would call gamey taste to it.  So, what do we need to know about venison before cooking it?  Well, venison is wild – so we know it doesn’t visit the vet for shots to keep it healthy, and they are carriers of the deer tick, you know – that little bug that causes lime desease. So we need to keep that in mind when handling and follow all the standard safety precautions.  Look your kill over before gutting it to check for sores that might be housing the dreaded “deer tick”.  If you find anything that looks suspicious, clean it out with a sharp hunting knife.  Gut your deer out and prop the chest cavity open with a stick.  I know some guys that field skin the deer to the spine.  Skinning the hide as much as possible on a fresh kill makes the rest of the job much easier if you intend to butcher it yourself, it also aids in cooling and curing the meat.  Don’t handle the meat with open sores on your hands, wear rubber gloves when butchering.  Wash your hands and disinfect cutting surfaces after butchering.  And by all means make sure the meat is cooked through.  Having said that, lets get to some recipes.  Everyone knows how to cook steaks, chops and roasts so, I’ll start by giving some simple but unique recipe’s

Venison Filet (Almost) Mignon:

Filet Mignon, French for “slice” (filet) and “dainty” (Mignon), meaning dainty slice in English.  Filet Mignon comes from the narrow end of the tenderloin of the animal,  This is a strip of meat along the spine or rib cage that carries no weight and is very tender.  A good filet mignon when cooked is so tender it can be cut with a fork.  In this recipe we use the bulk of the venison chop with all fat removed in place of the tenderloin cut and is cooked like filet mignon with a slight twist.

Ingredients:

4 Venison chops

8 strips of Bacon

¼ c Worcestershire Sauce

¼ c Apple Cider

2 cloves fresh garlic – crushed

Salt – to taste

Pepper – to taste

Instructions:

This is a great recipe for a special treat.  The lean dry nature of the venison makes it a perfect candidate for a beef filet mignon substitute.  Using the center out of 1” thick venison chops.  Strip the remainder of the meat from the bones and save for deer burger.  The size of the filet made from the chops will determine the number per serving, usually 1 per serving will do, but if they are small you might want to use 2 per serving.  This cut is usually about 3” in diameter 

• Bone the meat from the four (4) 1” thick venison chops and trim all the fat. 
• Wrap each of the slices 2 strips of bacon around the sides and secure with wooden toothpicks.  
• Place in a deep dish i.e.: a 9” square or suitable pan. 
• Mix the liquids, salt pepper and garlic and pour mixture over the filets.  
• Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in refrigerator overnight, turning several times to let marinate saturate filets well.  
• Spray or brush the grill with olive oil and broil on hot grill or in your oven broiler until done.  If you are using your outdoor grill on medium heat about 8 to 10 minutes on each side should do it.  Your oven broiler will take a little longer. 
• Check to see if done by cutting into the center of one of the filets with a sharp knife.  If the juices flow clear, they are done – if there are signs of blood they need to be cooked a little longer.

If you like venison as much as I do, you can skip the marinate.  Instead, rub the bacon wrapped filets with garlic, or sprinkle with garlic powder and cook.  It is also a great way to cook the tenderloin of the deer.

Venison Tenderloin:

The venison tenderloin is a cut of meat that many hunters don’t know exist.  This is because if you have the deer processed, the processor usually grinds the tenderloin into ground venison, (or so I’m told).  I can’t imagine such a fine piece of meat being ground up.  The venison tenderloin is a strip of meat about 1 ¼” thick at its thickest point and narrows down to about ½ ” thick at its narrowest point.  If you want to make sure you get this cut (there are two of them), make sure you tell the processor you don’t want them ground up. I think they like to keep this part for themselves as a little extra bonus.  I save myself the hassle and do my own butchering.

Ingredients - The recipe is simple:

2 venison tenderloins

Bacon

Salt (optional - to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Garlic powder (to taste)

Instructions:

• Season the tenderloins with the pepper and garlic powder.  The bacon is usually salty enough to salt the tenderloins and satisfy most people’s palet.
• Wrap each of the tenderloins in bacon – start at one end and wrap the meat in a close spiral wrap similar to a candy cane and securing with wooden toothpicks
• Cook over your outdoor grill, or broil in your oven broiler for 6 to 8 minutes on each side using the following method.
• If you are cooking on an outside grill, place a double fold of tin foil on the grill and place the wrapped tenderloins on the tinfoil with about the thickest ¾ of the tenderloin overhanging the tin foil exposed to the open flame.  Every couple of minutes expose another ¼ to the open flame.  Watch the entire cooking process closely to control flare-ups from the bacon grease.  If you are using your over broiler (the safer method), cover the meat with the tin foil pulling the foil back every couple minutes to exposing  another ¼ until done.  Don’t forget to turn the meat cooking both sides before exposing each section.
• Cut into the thickest part with a sharp knife.  If the juices flow clear its done, if you see signs of blood it needs to be cooked a little longer
• Slice diagonally into ¾” slices and serve.

Serves 4 to 6

Venison Blue Cheese Bacon Burgers:

Ingredients:

2 lbs venison burger

1 lb lean bacon

½ c Blue cheese

½  c mayonnaise

2 fresh tomatoes – medium sliced

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Iceberg lettuce

4 large Kaiser Rolls

Instructions:

• Divide the venison burger into four 8 oz balls and flatten for cooking.
• Spray or brush grill with olive oil and cook the burgers until done (about 8 minutes each side)
• Cook the bacon in a frying pan until crisp, remove and place on paper towel lined dish to absorb excess grease. 
• Check burgers by sticking with a fork, if the juices flow clear they are done. If there are still signs of blood cook a little longer.
• While burgers are cooking – mix the cheese and mayonnaise together 
• Serve burgers on bed of lettuce on a Kaiser roll, top with bacon and tomato slices and garnish with blue cheese dressing.

Serves 4

These are some of my finest venison recipes, I’ll be posting a few more from my “venison jerky” collection soon.

Enjoy!