Deer steaks for non-wild game lovers

mikeyb

mikeyb

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Did these a while back after reading an article on how to make extremely lean meats taste more like heavily marbled meats.

We all know that a lot of the "game" flavor of deer comes from the fat. Most cuts are fairly lean, so I cut the remaining fat off the edges and peel any "silver skin" away, then rinse in cold water to ensure the surface is absolutely clean (some butchers use a bandsaw when doing large cuts and I like to make sure there are no fragments or "bone dust" on the meat). You should be left with an extremely lean steak(s) at this point, ready for the next step.

The rub requires:

1/2 cup Kosher salt
1 tsp Montreal steak spice
1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper
1 clove Minced Garlic

Combine all the ingredients in a large Ziplock bag and toss the steaks in, shaking to ensure they are liberally coated. Sounds like a lot of salt, doesn't it? It's okay, we aren't going to eat it. The salt is going to draw moisture out of the meat and make it a bit "softer", for lack of a better term. This will infuse it with a lot of flavor. It will also help your spices sink in to the meat a bit more in my experience.

Shake/rub frequently over the course of an hour. After an hour has passed, remove the steaks and rinse them again in cold water. Pat them as dry as possible! If a paper towel underneath one absorbs little water, then you should be good. The surface needs to be absolutely dry! (I've use about a quarter of a roll of paper towel just getting it dry enough to proceed)

Heat up some olive oil in a skillet and set your oven to 400º or BBQ to high. Add minced garlic to the oil and rub some more Montreal steak spice over the meat, then sear it for a minute on each side under medium-high heat. Transfer the steaks to the oven or grill and complete cooking, at least until meat has reached 140º internal temperature.

Transfer to a foil-covered plate and wrap them for another 5 minutes (good time to serve a starter salad and top off the Heineken!). Goes very nicely with corn-on-the-cob, grilled mushrooms, and roasted baby red potatoes. There will still be a slight hint of game to the taste but it will be more of a complimentary flavor than dominant.
 
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I have to disguise deer meat for my wife, so I do something similar except soak in salted water overnite, pat dry then dry marinate with steak spice and minced garlic for another nite. Finally I brush on olive oil and bbq till med well. She'll even have 2nds when I do this.
 
I use a larding needle to inject pork fat sliced in thin strings (I use pork belly) in super lean moose and deer cuts.

Will have to try these techniques after the hunt this fall. I just ran out of moose and have only half a dozen deer dinners left.
 
I'm doing great with the family eating deer here as well. I can disquise it, if need be. I did small cubes in the slow cooker with crushed tomato from a can, along with lots of garlic and spices. Our youngest daughter who is a very picky eater, wanted to try some. She said it taste just like Chef Boyardee, whatever that's supposed to mean. Perhaps that means overwhelmingly tender and processed???
 
Maybe one day I'll get one of them "gamey" tasting deer.

Been good, so far.

Italian dressing is an old standby as far as a marinade goes. Got enough oils in it to keep it from cooking dry, got some lemon juice in there to help tenderize stuff whether it needs it or not.

IMO, overcooking venison, has been the root of more folks refusing to try it again, than almost anything else. A nice marinade will moisten it up, and add some flavor if that's what you want, but overcooking it will still make it a poor second place to the stuff that has been done just enough.

Low and slow, and just long enough, whether in a pan or on the BBQ, is what works best for me, most of time.

Tough to go through a whole leg roast and strip out the silverskin and fat, and all the ones I have had tasted just fine. Same for the bone saw dust. Never found it to make a difference I could tell.

Cheers
Trev
 
My parents are from an english background, where roasts were the standard supper fare. As a result when I was a kid, the deer meat they cooked was roasted just like beef. Put in a pot in the oven and cooked until it was as tender as a block of leather. You just can't do that with venison, as it is way too lean to withstand that sort of treatment.

On the subject of bone saw dust, I'm not convinced that it is the source of gamey taste. I've cut my own, and have cooked the odd steak with a circle of bone and marrow in the middle. I've tasted the cooked marrow, and it had no distinctive flavor.

I have tasted deer that had a weird metallic taste to it. Also meat that was contaminated from leaking stomach contents. Its smells like vomit and all you can do is throw it out. Luckily the deer I've harvested lately has had no abnormalities to its taste or smell, and whether its ground venison burgers, sausages, tenderloin stirfries or cubes in stew, its all tastes good. I think its an unfair but natural comparison to liken it to beef. Its not beef, and has entirely its own unique and delicious taste.
 
here's another easy way to get great taste:

marinate overnight in red wine and montreal steak seasoning. Simply bbq and you will be in for a real treat. No gamey taste at all. The only problem is right now I am out of venison!
 
Never had a bad tasting/ gamey deer or moose. But then again my father was pretty picky about cleanliness when dressing game and passed on the same to me. Last year i had to take my deer to a different butcher and they did a terrible job i ended up getting meat back that i had to pull hair off of for 1/2 hour before cooking.
Never again will i deal with that butcher shop.:mad:
 
secret to great deer/moose

Meat thermometer wild game does not have the fat and grain to do the old back of the hand/poke test. I have never had wild game leftover (4 picky kids) as I always use the meat thermo (digital) when grilling. Pull into a bowl at 140 or slightly less and let rest for 5 minutes covered as mentioned. I work in the bush a fair bit and either take frozen meat with me or "trade" for caribou/moose/muskox. Everybody laughs when I pull the meat thermo out when cooking over an open fire in the middle of nowhere - till they eat then the locals want me to mail them one. Best $15 you can spend.
My Kids have never been big sausage/smoky eaters and to be honest neither am I. I'm real careful when I debone my animals - if I wouldn't throw it in a fry pan and eat it on the spot why would you grind it and eat it later?
A rancher buddy put me onto a great recipe called "shishkala" that is for lamb but works great for moose and deer; modified by me:
In a big zip lock freezer bag put one thin sliced lemon and a half a sliced onion. Black pepper and garlic. add cubed trim meat till approx a meal, top with lemon juice to cover meat. close the bag and squish it up. leave in fridge for a few days to week kneading once a day, throw in freezer. Either put on shiskabobs with other stuff or in a grill basket with green peppers etc and a bit of oil. grill med/hot flipping regular and use the thermo on a bigger piece.
Awesome - and really great for camping etc. as the lemon/onions allow the meat to keep for longer when thawed.
enjoy!
Tom
 
I've found that the length of time to let the meat sit depends on the thickness and the amount of fat in the meat. The most important thing is to rinse it fully and dry it off. Make sure the surface is totally dry before BBQing.
 
holy he11 this thread made me hungry...

thankfully we dont eat any store bought cuts (only deli meats and hotdogs etc) so my wife expects the flavour to change from year to year and animal to animal.

we are definitely a Montreal steak spice family tho :)
 
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