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.

Buck Meat - Tenderizing Venison

One winter my sister's smart ass boyfriend gave my father a big bag of old buck meat.  All I heard the rest of that winter and through the spring was him laughing.  That summer at a cook out we fed him some of that meat with a generous helping of xlax in his in his deer patty.  At first he was snickering, and with a big shit eating grin on his face saying and repeating, "MMMMMM that's some deer meat" not like that old buck meat.  Well my father had a bigger grin saying, "Jake that was that old meat you gave me, with an extra helping of xlax in yours to make it nice and tender".

OK x-lax will not tenderize Buck Meat

What makes buck meat so tough that your jaw will ache after eating it?  It's really a combination of factors:

1.  Age.  The older the tougher.

2.  Nutrition. Deer farms feed their bucks specialized feed, the meat from these bucks are much more tender.  If you are feeding a deer for any extended amount of time, do not feed human food, feed them apples, pumpkin, acorns, corn.

3.  Rut.  (late summer - early fall) during this time the males hormones are elevated and their muscles are growing.  A buck harvest at this time will produce tough meat.

4. How long it took the buck to die.  The longer it takes the tougher the meat will be. If you can stay on the positive side of these four points the better your chances are of harvesting a buck who's meat is decent. 

But what if you got tough buck meat right now - two options.
1.  The first option would be to grind the meat up.  Forget about steaks and backstrap.  If the meat processing industry could make delicious strips of meat from the meat of older animals they would.  But they know this is not a option. So they grind the meat up to make lesser meats such as:  Sausage, hamburger, salami, bologna etc.

2.  If grinding the meat is absolutely not an option for you then I would suggest you look into vacuum tumbling. The tumbler allows a combination of forces: pressure, temperature, liquids (marinades) and mechanical motion to work on tenderizing the meat.  Keep in mind, while vacuum tumbling may be a solution, this method wasn't necessarily invented to tenderize tough meat, it was more invented to make good meat better.

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Too many 5 Hour Energy shots - Drank with a straw

Three or four years ago I discovered something called 5-hour energy.  I was hammering down shots long before I ever heard of it from a friend, on the net and long before seeing a t.v commercial for this product.  When I first started using these shots my ears would turn red and my skin would tingle.  The shot really worked well at first but now not so much and for as much as the little shot cost it just wasn't worth continuing to use.

When quit I found myself craving the shot.  I personally think this product may be a little psychologically addicting. Its claimed 5-hour energy is all natural.  I do think 5-hour is a much better alternative to those large energy drinks you get out of the cooler.  But I still do not think 5-hour is completely healthy even though the commercial claims it is an all natural drink. 

Yes, it contains 0 sugar and about as much caffeine in 1 cup of coffee.  Sounds GREAT!!!  But why don't they list the chemicals that are in the special energy blend?  Remember this.  I am not saying 5- hour contains trans fats I just want to cite an example.  If a product contains less than a certain amount of trans fats the FDA doesn't require the manufacture to mention trans fats on food labels.  So maybe also 5-hour energy also has chemicals in it at low enough levels that allow the manufacture not to disclosure their presence. Possible?

How to Supplement Energy - Alternatives

• ginger elixirs
• Eating fruits
• chili peppers  
• Asian sun tea
• Peppermint, jasmine scented aromatherapy

Fewer deer hunters predicted this year - Opening on a Tuesdays

Fewer hunters predicted this year

This Tuesday marked the opening of deer season in the state of Michigan.  On a Tuesday?  This year would have been the year my kid and I shared opening day together.  Some of the best memories of my life were on opening day with my father and brothers.  But this year on opening day my son would be sitting in school.  I can't tell you how disappointed he was when I finally broke the news to him that opening day was on a Tuesday and he wouldn't be able to participate in it.  They predict fewer deer hunters this year?  I wonder who made that obvious prediction.

I am sure many fathers and sons across the state of Michigan experienced this same type of disappointment and frustration. 

Fewer deer hunters - from 698,000 in 2010 to 675,000 in 2011

The average person may not realize how the 16-day firearm deer season helps boost areas of the Michigan economy.  Hunting licenses cost money, lodging cost money, food hunters eat cost money.  The economy of the state of Michigan is already in rough enough shape.  Why not use a little common sense and foresight.  Hunters love opening day but people also have jobs they need to be at and the fathers who want to take their kids out are stuck with the decision, "do I let my kid skip school?".

So if there are 25,000 fewer hunting licenses being purchased how much will the state of Michigan lose relative to the 2010 season?  If the hunting season opened over the weekend, I think a conservative estimate of how much one hunter would spend on a licenses, lodging, and food is right around $250.  Now times $250 by 25,000 hunters, so the state of Michigan is losing millions.  

Obviously, when the state puts opening day smack in the middle of the week that will only decrease the number of hunters that participate, that means less money put into our states struggling economy.  And it means families are missing out on memories together.

If you are one of the lucky ones who will be hunting check out my hunting apps page.  These are apps for hunters, using iphone or android.  The "game call" app really impressed me

Venison Stroganoff - Deer eating Heaven

This is a delicious healthy meal full of protein and quality carbs.  The first time I skinned and butchered a deer on my own, this was the first meal my momma made me.  During the late fall and through the winter, for years this was a regular Thursday night meal at our house.  With your first mouthful of this thick and creamy venison stroganoff you will forget the cold winter night.

prep time is 15 min, cook time 30 min = total time to prepare 45 mins

Ingredients:
2 pounds of venison steak 1/2-inch thick, then cut into cubes.
2 cups of chopped mushrooms.
1 onion, chopped.
2 can of campbell's condensed mushroom soup.
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 bag (16 oz) egg noddles

1. Season the venison with salt and garlic.  Saute the onion in a skillet.  Once the onion has soften add the venison and continue to saute until browned.  Then lower the heat and let simmer.  Add the mushroom soup.


2. With your normal pot for cooking noddles, bring water to a boil.  Once boiling, add the noddles, boil approximately for 10 minutes (I am sure you know how to boil noodles,  duh, duh).

3. Drain noodles.

4.  Add Venison mushroom soup mixture to the drained noodles and keep warm on stove before serving.

 

Bad Deer Season - Like my friends

The 2011 deer hunting season is here.  Every season at least one of my friends has no luck bagging a deer.  But I am always there to cheer them up.  At first, I was very bad at cheering up my pitiful friends.  I tried different things.  This year I decided I should buy a hunting app for one of my friends. 

Deer season always ends right around my nephews.  Once for his birthday, I rented a gorilla suit and jumped around at his party.  The kids loved it so much.  I saw how happy they were seeing me in the costume so that made me think of my sad friend who didn't get a deer.  Would he love it too?

At the time, he was living alone, he actually is a DNR officer.  Around 2 A.M. I put the gorilla suit back on and went through his unlocked backdoor.  Perfect he was sound-a-sleep in his bed :).   I have often wondered if I would react how he reacted if someone jumped on me in a gorilla suit.

Gorilla suits are not the best thing to cheer up hunters with.  But here is something a little more tame that might help. 

How to make beef taste like venison

1. Start one year before beforehand.  So if you want to eat venison by Jan 1st 2013 you need to start this by Jan 1st 2012
2. Buy a steer and feed it only berries, peppermint, clover and grass.
3. On the day it will be butchered you need chase it for 2.5 hours to get the blood and adrenaline pumped into the meat.
4. Shoot the steer immediately after chasing and make sure it is a gut shot. This helps tenderize the meat. 
5. Then you need to drag the dead steer through the grass and mud.  You can tie his legs and hook him up to your rear bumper, get the steer as dirty as possible.
 6. Find a buddy with a pick-up truck if you don't have your own.  Put the deer in the bed and drive down a gravel road for at least 10 miles.  Some people think this is to get the steer even dirtier but it so the steer can pick up a nice even country scent.  If you do it on a rainy day that is even better.
8. Hang the steer the garage, you want to hang him low enough so the dog can lick and chew on him.

9. Finally, when you can no longer stand the smell of the carcass he is ready to be butchered.


If you follow these steps your entire family will believe what they are eating is venison.  And the other great thing is you will never again have to put your crazy ass costume on again and walk 100 miles to your tree stand.

Cleaning WIndows - Vinegar

My mother always made me clean, she was a maniac with the sweeper and dust clothe.  Whatever she told me to clean whether it be my room, the bathroom, the computer desk she would come in to check it when I was through!!!  

Guess what?  She always found something wrong, if she couldn't find something wrong she would make it up.  Just so I had to go back and do it over.  Obviously I would always think of getting even with her.  


One day I asked her, why do you spend money on glass cleaning spray, "Vinegar in a spray bottle works just as well and the cost is 1/5 of your normal spray".  Of course an argument ensued.  

Do you have a empty spray bottle?  Fill it with 4 parts vinegar and one part water.  Wipe you windows clean, wiped glass tables clean.  Dry your windows and glass off with newspapers.  Save money both ways, on spray cleaner and paper towels.  Also, don't you think that spray cleaner could possibly have harmful chemicals in it?  Vinegar is natural, it was first discovered from sour wine.

Clothes Still Smelly After Wash

If you didn't know this already your washing machine does get dirty.  This sounds a little counter-intuitive...  Isn't my washing machine made for the purpose of getting my clothes clean?  Doesn't all that detergent I use automatically clean the washing machine?  How does it get dirty?  What detergents do is make the dirty and grim on clothes soluble in water, meaning it lifts the dirt and grim off your clothing and into the water.  The detergent doesn't destroy the dirt and grim, detergents just remove them from your clothing.

What you are left with is dirty water and clean clothes.  The dirty water is drained out of the machine through the tubing but some of the dirt is bound to get deposited in the tubing as it exits and some also deposits in the basket of the machine.  Eventually your washing machine becomes dirty and results in your clothes not being as clean and fresh as they could be.

What to do?

There is a simple way to clean your washing machine this will get rid of the dirt and soap scum that has deposited in the hoses and basket.

This is very simple to do, every couple of months pour two cups of vinegar into your machine and run a normal cycle (with no clothes in the basket).  If you have a very dirty machine now, you can do this every week until you feel satisfied.  This will not hurt your machine.

Venison Burgers

Venison Burgers - Wild Game Recipes

Venison is a much healthier to ground beef.  See the comparison.  It's leaner than beef however most ground venison does contain a small bit of beef fat for taste.

Some people or actually many turn they nose up when you mention eating venison but one more than one occasion I have secretly include venison meat into meals and never heard a complaint.  Many times I was told how tasty the meal was.


My Venison Burgers - Recipe

Ingredients:
    1 lbs. ground venison
    1/4 of a large red onion (minced)
    1 teaspoon white vinegar
    1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
    1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
    1 beaten egg
    salt
    pepper
  
 First mix venison, onion (minced), vingar, garlic, parsley.
 Sprinkle in pepper and salt to your preference amount
 Mix
 Preheat grill to medium-high heat (frying pan).

Shape the meat into 4 patties

Grill to your desired doneness.

Don't be afraid of venison, said to taste gamey but you will never notice this in a good cut.

Venison Meatballs - Cooking Wild Meat

This recipe is based on one pound of ground venison, if you are using 2 pounds double everything else, if you use 1/2 pound half everything else.  Have a good time Hunting this year and be safe!!!

Required Ingredients:

1 lbs. Ground Venison
1 cup of your favorite breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs (beaten)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons bacon bits or your own fried and cringed bacon
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 cloves of minced garlic

A bottle of your favorite marinara sauce


1. Combine your venison, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, milk, eggs. 
    -In a seperate dish mix: salt, black pepper,olive oil, bacon, parsley, garlic.
2. Mix both combinations well.
3. Combine mixtures and further mix.
4. Refrigerate four 1/2 hour
5.  Remove from frig and form golf ball-sized meatballs.

6. Add oil to your cooking pot, let oil warm on medium heat.
7.  Once oil is warm add your venison meatballs
8.  Turn Meatballs so all sides are brown, cooking time 5 minutes.
10. Pour bottle of marina into the pot with meatballs, cover and turn down heat to simmer.

Cooking time is around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
let cool.
Can be eaten as a snack or served over pasta.

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Venison Backstraps on the Grill - two times marinated

This non-gamey tasting, but delicious venison recipe requires marinating twice, wrapping the venison chunks in thick bacon and grilling until crispy. 

Prep time 25 minutes

Cook time 20 minutes

Total time 5  hours (because of marinating)

Ingredients

Serves - 4

• 2 lbs. of venison backstraps
• 1-1/4 quart apple cider
• 1 pound of thick bacon
• 2 Medium sized Apples (sliced)
• 12 oz bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce. 

1. Cut venison backstraps into roughly two inch chunks.
2. Slice each apple  into 6 chunks
3. Place venison and apple chunks into baking dish.
4. Pour in apple cider
5. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. 
6. Remove apples and apple cider.
7. Add your barbeque sauce refrigerate 2 hours. 
8. Remove form frig.
9. Wrap each venison chunk with a slice of bacon, use a toothpick to secure. 
10. Preheat Grill
11. Grill for 15 - 20 minutes make sure to turn occasionally.
12. You want the bacon to become mildly burnt bacon
13. 15 to 20 minutes should get the job done. 

Delicious tasting.  Eat this and you will want it again and again.

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