Venison Cooking Tips

1. Avoid over cooking.  The longer you cook the drier venison meat.

2. The internal temperature of venison meat should be 135 to 140.  The meat will begin to dry when internal
temperature goes above this range.  This is because venison meat is lean.  The presence of a signficant amount
of fat in beef protects this type of meat from drying at higher temperatures.  Venison meat lacks fat. 
Buy yourself a meat thermometer. 

3. Normally you shouldn't grill or broil venison meat past med-rare.  If you are cooking venison meat for someone who requests well-done, you should marinate the meat overnight in a favorite marinade. You may also want to

4. If you desire a venison stews or pot roast, these should always be cooked at low temperatures and given many hours to cook.  Crock pots are the best for stews and roasts.

5. If you have Slow cooked oven roasts have a tendency to become dry when roasting. Frequent basting is the principle method

6.  To prevent roast from drying, cook covered and occasionally bast roast with juices.

7. You want to keep the juices sealed in.  So during cooking, when picking up the use a pair of tongs.  Using a fork will pierce the meat and cause the wonderful juices to escape.

8. If you cook with alcohol and worry about your kids being exposed to this.  Don't fret alcohol evaporates at low temperatures so once cooked the alcohol content will be zero.

9. If cutting into strips, cut against the grain.  Also cutting when slightly frozen is easier.

cooking wild meat

Venison Roast - cooking wild meat

Cooking wild meat isn't difficult, here is a simple yet, tasty vension roast recipe.

2.5 lb venison roast cut
1 can of beef broth
2 tsp. garlic salt
3 sliced medium potatoes
1 cup green beans
2 sliced carrots
2 onions
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper

Put in Croc, added 1 cup water and your can of broth.
Drop carrots, potatoes, onions and green beans into croc.
Sprinkle in garlic, salt and pepper.

Cook for an 2 hours at 325 degrees or on high.

Cooking wild meat

Jerky processing

Mold	Some jerky is packaged in jars or is not vacuumed seal.  When this is the case oxygen will remain present.  Mold will sometimes grow on jerky if oxygen is present.  Vacuum sealing will remove oxygen, preventing mold growth.
Salts or Sugars	The use of too much salt or sugar in the marinade.  When the marinade dries, the salts and sugars crystallize out of solution and appear as a white residue.
Tyrosine	The amino acid Tyrosine. Tyrosine also forms crystals.  This can also be seen on cheese and ham.
Sodium nitrite	A rare cause but sodium nitrite can precipitate into a white film on the surface of jerky.  This would be the case "hard" water was used during the jerky making process.
too dry	A white film also appear if the jerky is dried too long.

Elk Meat - Elk Ranching

Living in the Midwest of the United States I have never got to take a shot at an elk, let alone see one.  However, my father and brother in law took a trip up to Alberta Canada.  My father bagged an elk but my rough shot brother-in-law didn't.  So to piss my father off, like he always does, my brother-in law decided to buy some elk meat from a farm in Alberta.  When they got back to the states with the meat, they wanted me to judge what tasted better, the elk my father bagged or the elk my brother-in-law bought off a farm.

I knew nothing about this type of meat, so before I sat down an ate the elk I did a little research.  I would   suggest everyone to do a little research before they ate a new type of wild game.  Just to be safe

Elk Meat -  Elk Nutrition

 My research on Elk:

• very high in protein content
• lean meat, leaner than beef, pork and also chicken
• very high in iron and B vitamins

If you buy Elk Meat at a farm please make sure, the elk is natural feed and no growth hormone, steroids or antibiotics were used.


I found this out about processing of Elk meat in Alberta, Canada:
.

• The Canadian government regulates the processing of Elk meat through the Livestock Industry Diversification Act.

•  Both farm raised elk and wild elk are regularly inspect and monitored for tuberculosis and brucellosis by The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

• There is a government mandated surveillance program that elk ranchers must follow to protect and  ensure their elk are free from chronic wasting disease (CWD).  SInce 2002 only one case has been found and it was sequestered.

After reading up on the quality of elk meat from Canada I felt very safe eating what my father and brother-in-law brought back.  My dad was a little pissed but I chose my brother-in-laws farm feed elk over my dad's bagged elk for taste.

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Venison Jalapeno Poppers - Cooking Wild Meat

Serves 6
4 poppers per serving
135 calories
5.5g fat
2.5 g saturated fat
51 mg cholesterol
14.5 g protein
2.5g carbohydrate
1g sugar
675mg sodium; 30mg calcium.
 
Recipe
1/2  lb venison (top round or bottom round)
1/2 tspn salt
12 medium jalapeno peppers
12 bacon slices
1. Cut venison into 24 even strips.  You do want to make sure the strips are a little longer than peppers.
2. In a bowl mix together the venison strips, salt and pepper.  Stir until their is an even distribution of seasonings.
3.  Remove the stems from peppers and slice each pepper in half lengthwise.
4. Optional if you don't like hot and spicy foods remove pepper seeds and membranes.  If you desire hot and spicy don't remove.
5. Bacon, cut each slice in half.

Cooking Wild Meat - Assembly of the Jalapeno Poppers.

6. Take each pepper half and place a venison strip inside.
7. Wrap your halved bacon slices around each venison and pepper.
8.  Secure with toothpick.

7. Light a charcoal grill and allow to warm (5 minutes).
8. Evenly distribute the poppers on the rack above the grill surface.  
9. Cook 5 minutes with grill covered. (Cooking without the lid could cause the rendering bacon fat to flare up 10.  Turn each popper, close grill, cook 5 minutes. 
11.  After this 5 minutes place poppers directly on grill, close grill lid (cook 3 minutes)
12. Turn and cook 3 more minutes

Total cook time is 16 minutes check frequently to make sure not burning

Turtle Soup - Cooking Wild Meat

I remember the first time I ce aught a turtle.  Actually, my dad caught it.  I was about 5 years old and I was in the car with my dad driving to his friends house out in the boon docks.  On the ride there, my dad spotted a turtle in a truck stop parking lot.  Cooking wild meat was a hobby of my fathers and the friend he was visiting that dad.  So of course my dad pulled into that parking lot to get that turtle.  At first that turtle scared the crap out of me.  I was only 5. 

Since then I couldn't tell you how many turtles I have either bait or caught with my hands. 
My family, friends and I have been making turtle soup for years here is how we do it:

Ingredients

1 1/2 pound turtle meat
3 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne,
7 cups water
1 butter stick
1/2 cup flour
2 cups of chopped onions
1/2 cup bell peppers, chopped
1/4 cup celery chopped
4 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon thyme
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1.5 cups chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 green onions, chopped

Direction

Turtle meat, salt, cayenne, water into large sauce pan

Bring to a boil. 

Skim foam the foam as it cooks.

Once the foam starts lower the heat.

Simmer for 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes transfer the meat to cutting board and save the juice in the pan.

Cut the meat into roughly 1/2 inch sections.

Next combine butter and flour into sauce pan turn the heat on medium, stir this constantly over 6-9 minutes.

To this paste add the onions, bell pepper, and celery. 

Once these are added cook for another 3 minutes,  stir constantly.

Add the bay leaves, thyme and garlic, cook for 2 more minutes, stir constantly.

Turn heat to high.

Add cut up turtle meat, tomatoes, lemon juice.

Cook for 6 to 8 minutes stirring.

Reduce heat to and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Add parsley, green onions, and eggs 

Simmer for 30 minutes.

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Cooking Wild Meat - Deer Stew

Cooking wild meat and getting it to turn out delicious might be a little more tricky than tame meat.  For years I have experimented with different ingredients.  I like to call this one Burgundy Deer Stew.  Yes, I am so sophisticated.

I have read recipes in normal cookbooks and have learned that the history of using burgundy wine to flavor beef is far and wide.

One day I thought, "since burgundy flavors beef so well, I should try it with wild meat. 

1 and 1/2 pound of venison steak - cut that steak into chunks
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Water
1 tsp. thyme leaves (dry)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
3/4 cup. Burgundy Wine

1 cup. beef broth
3 large garlic cloves (crushed)
1 large onion  (chopped)
1 cup. frozen corn
1 cup of chopped carrots
1 cup celery chopped
3 potatoes - peel and chop into medium pieces
1 Tbsp. basil
1 tsp. celery seed

Cooking Wild Meat in your Crock Pot 
First do all the cutting, peeling and crushing (garlic). Also get your Crock Pot out.


2.  Using vegetable oil and skillet brown the meat and crushed garlic together.  Once browned add the contents of the skillet to your Crock pot.
3.  Add the remaining ingredients, stir contents well.
4. Cook for 2 hours with heat on high the heat on high.
5.  Turn heat to low and continue to cook for 6 hours.