How do you use your venison?
I was lucky enough to get a nice deer during the rifle season this year, and I butchered it myself. While butchering, I decided to do it in a way that would give me more options for cooking various meals. This is the 3rd deer I've butchered on my own, and each time I learn a bit more about how to do it. I'm still a total amateur at this since I don't know any professional butchers who can give me tips, so I figured maybe someone on this forum could provide ideas on additional things to try the next time, both in butchering and cooking options.
Here's how I butchered my deer (note: boneless for the most part), and what I plan to do with the cuts:
Ground meat, ~28.8 lbs: I use this in burgers (mostly), chili, pasta sauce, sometimes for jerky.
Loin chops, 4.4 lbs: These go on the BBQ rare or medium rare at most, salt and pepper or with "The Keg" steak spice mix, but not too much or it overpowers the flavour of the meat.
Steak (sirloin and top round), 9.8 lbs: Treated the same as loin chops.
Stewing meat, 10.6 lbs: I've been using a great stew recipe from Steve Rinella's wild game cookbook - it comes out awesome, but his recipe is way too salty, so you have to cut the amount of salt in half and consequently reduce the pepper a bit. I'll also give some to my in-laws since my mother in-law has been wanting to try to a venison stew recipe.
"Roast", 12.2 lbs: I have a variety of cuts here, and I still have to figure out what I will do with some of them. I tried to put more meat into roasts this year so that I can see what options I like the most.
- I kept 1.5 blade roasts with the bone in and the plan is to slow cook these. 1/2 a blade roast was lost to possible bone fragments, but I gave the waste to a friend who feeds his dog raw meat. He said his dog eats the bone and everything, but I took out any big pointy shards just to be safe.
- Eye of round roast: I heard this is supposed to be a great cut, but I've never made a roast with it before. I think I may have put it into stew previously. Comments?
- Bottom round roast: I plan just a traditional roast for these, or maybe jerky. In the past I put this into steaks, jerky, and one may have gone into stew. Comments?
- Tenderloin: Not really a roast, but I put it in this category anyway. I usually bbq these, rare.
- Loin roast: Usually I just make chops out of the loin, but this year I decided to try something new. I cut it so that it can be stuffed and rolled to make a roast. We'll see how it goes. I would hate to end up with some dried out, grey roast when I could have had delicious, rare BBQ chops instead.
- Shank (boneless, from the hind legs): I saved these from the grind pile at the last minute based on some videos I watched that said this cut is great in the slow cooker. We'll see. The last deer I butchered prior to this one I kept the front shanks for bone-in roasts in the slow cooker, but they are still in my freezer. I'll have to use them before I try the new shank roast.
Heart: I've kept the heart in the past, but always ended up having to freeze them, then gave them to the same friend with the dog. This time I was determined to use it myself. I cleaned it up then cut it into thin strips and made up a recipe and sauteed it. It came out surprisingly good. Nobody else in the family would try it.
Liver: I brought it home, as I have done in the past because I really want to use as much of the deer as possible. One year, in preparation for cooking the deer liver, I even ordered a liver dish at a restaurant to see what potential liver has, but I wasn't crazy about it. This year, as in the past, I wasn't adventurous enough to cook it. I gave it to my friend with the dog. Comments on how to use deer liver are especially welcome.
So, what are your favourite ways to prepare venison? What am I missing out on?
