Love me sweet Italian sausage a little better than meatballs but will take either or both.
I take the sausage and brown as much as I can in a skillet with just a touch of olive oil, then drop them into the simmering sauce to finish cooking for about an hour. I also take the sausage grease and add to the sauce for added flavor. [Reply]
I eat venison quite a bit. I think a venison backstrap (loin) marinated in soy/garlic/olive oil and grilled to medium rare is the best piece of meat I've ever eaten. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
Got a company Christmas potluck tomorrow. I'm bringing venison backstrap medallions from my hunt 2 weeks ago. Doing a test run tonight.
Looks wonderful. I had the best venison about 25 years ago at my local public golf course, never expected that.
How do you prepare it and is venison a good meat to marinate to tame down the gaminess? :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by scho63:
Looks wonderful. I had the best venison about 25 years ago at my local public golf course, never expected that.
How do you prepare it and is venison a good meat to marinate to tame down the gaminess? :-)
The taste comes down to several factors. How much the deer was running at the time of death, and how it was processed. The more the deer runs after you shoot it, the more lactic acid builds up in the muscles. That creates some gamey taste. But more importantly is the processing. With deer, you don't want any fat whatsoever in the meat you're cooking. Unlike beef, deer is so lean that fat tastes horrible. It's the biggest source of the gamey flavor and where inexperienced cooks mess it up. Trim absolutely every bit of fat and sinew off, and be sure to pat it completely dry. Do that, and you honestly won't need any marinate to tame any gamey taste because there isn't any. People usually cannot believe this after having shitty cooked venison, but it's true. I still marinate it with just a bit of red wine and Allegro Hot and Spicy, but that's just to add a slight bit of flavor. Put the whole strap on the grill at very high heat. > 400. Seared about 4-5 minutes per side. Wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Just be sure not to overcook. It's really lean, so just a minute or two overcooking it can be disastrous. Sliced into medallions of desired thickness. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
The taste comes down to several factors. How much the deer was running at the time of death, and how it was processed. The more the deer runs after you shoot it, the more lactic acid builds up in the muscles. That creates some gamey taste. But more importantly is the processing. With deer, you don't want any fat whatsoever in the meat you're cooking. Unlike beef, deer is so lean that fat tastes horrible. It's the biggest source of the gamey flavor and where inexperienced cooks mess it up. Trim absolutely every bit of fat and sinew off, and be sure to pat it completely dry. Do that, and you honestly won't need any marinate to tame any gamey taste because there isn't any. People usually cannot believe this after having shitty cooked venison, but it's true. I still marinate it with just a bit of red wine and Allegro Hot and Spicy, but that's just to add a slight bit of flavor. Put the whole strap on the grill at very high heat. > 400. Seared about 4-5 minutes per side. Wrap and let rest for 15 minutes. Just be sure not to overcook. It's really lean, so just a minute or two overcooking it can be disastrous. Sliced into medallions of desired thickness.
Thank you very much!
My sister's husband is a HUGE hunter of all kinds of game and he has a lot of venison in the freezer. [Reply]
In my opinion, the biggest factor, right above how much stress the animal goes through right before death (running for example), is the status of the animal. Bucks during the rut are all full of hormones and the meat tastes "goaty". Younger deer are more tame tasting than older deer. Does are more tame tasting than bucks, unless it's a real young buck and a real old doe. I don't even shoot big bucks anymore. I hunt for the meat and the love of the hunt, so I shoot second season bucks and does, and the meat tastes live veal. It's amazing. [Reply]
One of the vacuum sealed packages I thawed out, had a lighter colored meat and was cut into what looked like knuckles...a small round piece of bone with a little bit of meat around it the color of veal. The stew meat and cutlets were a much darker meat.
I'm not going to cook that, because I don't what the hell it is. [Reply]