Sumbuddy said:A coworker of mine was leaving to go to a new job in
another state last week and gave me about 7 or 8 pounds of
venison steaks. I don't much about them except that they
are frozen, wrapped in butcher paper and just say steak on
the outside. Some are small and some are large, so I
suspect they an assortment of steak varieties. I've never
tried cooking venison before, so I'm not sure what to do
with them. I've heard that venison is lean and can be dry,
so I'm thinking of marinating them for a few hours and
grilling them on my George Foreman style grill or pan
frying them. If I had a barbecue or hibachi, I'd try that,
but I don't have access to one.
If anyone has any good recipes or marinades for venison
steaks or techniques for keeping them juicy, I'd love to
hear them. Thanks.
Here's a lot more than you asked for. Three columns I wrote
a few years ago - three separate posts. Doesn't directly
answer all your questions, but a good primer for game
cookery, particularly venison.
Pastorio
---------------------------
Are you game? Part 1 There are few subjects that I
hear more questions about than cooking game meats.
Particularly venison. So this week and next week,
we'll talk a little about game cookery. In my
restaurants we served lion, hippo, llama, alligator,
bear, boar, rattlesnake and, yes, venison. After all
the hours spent at the stove, I can say the
techniques and recipes below work and that they
contradict a lot of game cookery books. I'm not
looking for a fight with any of the good folks who
wrote them, but I assure you that what follows is
the best of what I've seen and done over the years.
Let's go. Game meats are frequently described as
tough, dry and too strongly flavored. Cookbook
writers still say to soak game meats for 24 hours or
more to get rid of the gamy flavor. Or use strong
marinades to get rid of the gamy flavor. Or cook it
in three changes of water(!) to get rid of the gamy
flavor. Would you do any of those things with a
piece of beef? First, you don't need to go to all
that nuisance to minimize the "wild" flavor. If you
trim off the surface fat from your meats, flavors
become more gentle naturally. Besides, getting rid
of the all the gamy flavor is getting rid of the
essence of the meat. Those people who advise you to
go through all those elaborate preparation steps
want deer to taste bland, unassertive. Bear to taste
unlike bear. Hey, if you don't enjoy the flavor;
there's no earthly reason to mess with it. Go eat
something you like, don't fight with a piece of
meat. Been wanting to say that for a long time.
Let's get to it. We're looking at the more tender
cuts in these two articles; basically, tenderloins,
rib roasts (sometimes) and hind leg hams. Any other
cut will almost surely be too tough to cook this way
and should be done as pot roasts, stews or ground
for sausage, burgers, meat loaf (or pate'😉 or chili-
type dishes. But that's another story for another
time. Venison is a very lean meat and, when
roasting, needs to have fat added both for good
flavor and moisture. The roasts also need to be
cooked at a low temperature to help them be tender.
Do it this way and you'll have roasts that will be
different than anything you've ever eaten before.
Tender, juicy, moist and tasting like themselves.
Here's a "be careful" note: You can't cook meats
consistently by minutes-per-pound formulas because
there are many variables that will affect the time
it takes to cook properly. Here's what I mean: 1.
thin roasts cook faster than thick ones; 2. room
temperature meats cook faster than ones right out of
the refrigerator; 3. roasts with bones-in cook
faster than boneless ones;
4. rolled and tied roasts take longer than open ones; 5.
your oven thermostat is more than likely inaccurate. An
instant-read thermometer from a housewares store (under
$10) solves all those problems and guarantees success
every time. Roasting should always be done on a rack,
never sitting on the bottom of the roasting pan. When you
put it directly on the pan, you're roasting the top but
frying the bottom in its own rendered fat. The bottom
overcooks before the top is done. And never, never put
meat in a roasting pan and add water. You roast the top
and boil the bottom. The meat will toughen and get
stringy. To roast venison, the best temperatures I've
used were 205 degrees (convection oven) or 250 degrees
(conventional home oven) or 250 in a smoker. The meat's
safely done at a center temperature (away from bone) of
over 145 degrees and it'll be moist, flavorful and cooked
to the "medium" stage. It will be pink at the center and
juices will run slightly red. Cook it to 145-150 for
medium, 150-155 for medium well or 160-170 for well done.
The more well done, the drier it will be. After taking it
out of the oven, the roast should be permitted to rest
for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing, during which time
the center temperature will go up as much as 20 degrees
and the juices will redistribute themselves more evenly
throughout the roast. A 10 pound roast will take
somewhere between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours to cook to 145,
depending on the variables. At these low temperatures,
the outside of the roast will be only slightly browned.
If you prefer more browning, start the meat in a 450
degree oven and turn it down to 250 after 20 minutes. For
moist game roasts, you have to add some fat and there are
three main ways to do it: first, wrap pieces of fat
around the meat (called "Barding" in classic French
cuisine); second, insert strips of fat into the meat
(called "Larding" and traditionally requiring special
needles, but you can freeze sticks of bacon or fatback
and poke holes in the meat and then push the frozen
sticks through) and; third, inject the meat with a
kitchen hypodermic needle (available at housewares
stores). The hypodermic is easy. Just inject a couple
ounces of a light oil, plain or flavored as below, into
the roast then either drape bacon over the whole thing or
make the cover (in the recipes for next week) and roast.
Try to inject the oil around inside the meat in a few
different places rather than all in one place. Try this
for a tasty oil to inject into the meat: take a quart of
peanut oil and put in a cinnamon stick, three cloves,
about a tablespoon of cracked black peppercorns, a
teaspoon of garlic powder, a half teaspoon of ground
cumin, a tablespoon of cracked, dried juniper berries (if
you can find them) and a half teaspoon of powdered
ginger. Put it on a sunny kitchen window sill for a month
or so and the flavors will quietly permeate the oil.
Wonderful in a venison leg and, by the way, just as
terrific in a turkey breast. A satisfying dinner can be
produced this way: Start the meat in the oven on a rack.
After about an hour, put peeled and quartered potatoes
under the rack to bake with any drippings falling on
them. If you want the meal fuller still, cut a head of
cabbage into one-inch chunks and spread it on the bottom
of the pan then scatter the potatoes around on top of the
cabbage. Lovely. Some books advocate using marinades to
tenderize. Marinades don't actually penetrate the meat
very much except through holes you poke in the meat, so
only a little of the oil in marinades gets inside. The
catch-22 here is that poking holes in the meat lets its
juices out so the roast will be drier than if you hadn't
made the holes. Oh, well. Marinades can add or mask
flavors, though. Here's one I like: COOKED MARINADE FOR
VENISON This marinade gentles the "wild" taste, adds
moisture and flavor, and tenderizes very slightly. Put
meat and marinade in a covered container just a little
larger than the piece of meat for 24 to 36 hours. Turn
over a few times if a roast or stir occasionally if
pieces of meat. The marinade can be made in large batches
(double, triple, etc.) and frozen until needed. Freeze in
zipper bags in small portions, say, a cup. If you have
enough meat to need more than one portion, open as many
bags as you need, thaw and pour over meat.
5/4 cup vinegar
6/2 cup dry red wine 1 tablespoon lemon juice
7/2 teaspoon cinnamon
8/4 teaspoon thyme
9/4 teaspoon cumin 2 cloves garlic dash hot pepper
sauce 1 small onion cut into 1/2 inch chunks 2
ribs celery cut into 1/2 inch chunks 1 medium
peeled carrot cut into 1/2 inch chunks 1 cup oil
(light olive, canola, peanut) small pinch ground
clove 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns 1
tablespoon dried juniper berries (optional)
Combine all ingredients except peppercorns and
juniper berries in a blender or food processor and
run until it's fairly smooth. Pour into a
saucepan, add peppercorns and juniper berries and
bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover
and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring
occasionally. Cool and pour over meat or freeze.
Use once and discard. Five variations: 1) Try
flavored vinegars - tarragon, herbal, ginger, etc.
for a different taste. 2) Use white wine for a
lighter flavor. 3) Add slices of fresh ginger for
a bolder flavor and a peppery bite. 4) Add a cup
of catsup and 1/2 cup brown sugar to the basic
recipe to make a spicy barbecue sauce to brush on
grilled meat.
10) Add a little heated marinade to the sauce or gravy
that will be served with the roast.
