There Is A Right Way To Cook Deer Meat!

There are a lot of folks out there that refuse to, never have, or hate to eat venison.  I hope to drum up a few converts with this entry.

The first things most anti-venison folks say is that it tastes gamey and everyone says “You have to know how to cook it”.  Admittedly there some parts that have a strong liver flavor and need special preparation but if I were to introduce a skeptic to this kind of meat, I would prepare them a piece of tenderloin prepared as follows.

First the meat should come from a reliable hunter who knows a good meat processor/butcher.  A reliable hunter will remove the entrails (full of it’s waste) promptly after bringing the animal down.  If this is not done quickly it will taint the meat.  This is true of any meat product from the field, stream, or store.

Now that the gross part is out of the way, I would skip this  information for the benefit of the previously mentioned skeptic.  With a couple of steaks of tenderloin sliced to a thickness of 3/4″ I heat up the skillet with a spot of olive oil, I place the small steaks (these are butterflied) in the skillet and season them with a good bold steak seasoning.  They get a nice searing on both sides (about 3 minutes on each).  It is not usually wise to add liquid while cooking steaks but I did add a mere splash to cool the pan and keep the brown juice from going black and charred.  This will be my gravy later.  The water was just enough to evaporate very quickly in the high heat.

I removed the steaks to a plate to rest and shut off the fire while I prepared a mushroom gravy.  I added another dash of olive oil to the pan of brownness, and quickly added sliced mushrooms, about 3/4 cup of  water, salt, and pepper, then turned the heat back on medium high.  I mixed a tablespoon of flour with another 1/4 cup of water until it was perfectly smooth and poured this into the broth and mushrooms.  This took about two minutes to  thicken and make a lovely rich brown sauce to pour over  the steaks.

Since my husband skeptic was at work, Julia, who had a snow day, and I ate these deliciously tender steaks for breakfast (you gotta do something different on a snow day, right?).  This was not a bad meal for any time of the day, and with the cost of about four mushrooms, a pinch of spice, and a handful of flour, I’d say it was pretty budget friendly.  My brother in law was pretty friendly in giving me the best part of the deer as well.

I have a few more steaks in the freezer to whip out on my dear (deer) skeptic some day…maybe it will get his attention when he sees these pictures on the computer wallpaper…he he.

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