Venison is a straight up delicious red meat.  Saturated with proteins and nutrients, it can rival liver for healthy goodness.  Combine it with any kind of pork fat and your taste buds will swear they’ve died and gone to heaven.  You can broil, sauté, roast, barbeque, and smoke venison.  As long as you follow a few rules and trim your venison like the premier meat it really is, you’ll have plenty of compliments and no leftovers. 

Approach cooking venison as you would any prime cut of meat, especially the tender cuts.  These would be the back and portions of the leg muscles, known generally as the loins – backstrap, tenderloin, and sirloin.   

The tender cuts of venison have little connective tissue and essentially no fat.  They cook quickly and need the same attention as beef filet mignon to avoid cooking out their precious moisture and ruining the meat.  You can get delicious results if you broil, sauté, barbeque/grill, or roast tender cuts.   

A common technique is to wrap loin cuts in bacon.  The venison readily takes on the pork flavor, while the bacon fat helps brown the meat surface and seals in moisture.  Internal temperatures should be 130°-140° F for medium-rare, fork-tender results.  Another approach is preparing tenderloin as you would a double-dipped southern fried steak.  The smothered loins are roasted and delectable gravy is made from the pan drippings.   

You can substitute venison in any of your favorite prime meat recipes with complete success.  Just bump up the fat content in the cooking process with a small amount of bacon, butter, or vegetable oil. 

The majority of venison falls under the working cuts category.  These are the muscles that were heavily used by the deer.  They contain a higher amount of connective tissue, will be more flavorful than the tender cuts, and include shoulder and chuck roasts, ribs, and the hams.  The working cuts need to cook low and slow – and long enough break down the connective tissue for meat that is fall-apart delicious. 

Venison readily accepts herb flavors in rubs or marinates on larger cuts, in zesty groupings in stews and chili, and in the chewy favorite, deer jerky. 

Rubs usually include rosemary, thyme, sage, and oregano as base herbs with garlic, dried onion, dried red peppers for added zest.  A rub is prepared by combining herbs by crushing or bruising them and then rubbing the mixture into the venison.  The meat is then smoked, using low heat (200° - 240° F) for 4 to 24 hours. 

Marinades, in the simplest sense, are rubs that are combined with liquids, such as, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, liquid smoke, or hot sauces.  The herbs and liquids are combined and the venison is immersed in this savoury brew.  Many cooks put the meat and marinade in a large, locking plastic bag instead of a covered bowl for convenience sake.  The meat can stay in the marinade for an hour or much longer, depending on how strongly you want the marinade flavoring the meat. 

Stews, gumbos, and chilli are all made more robust with the addition of venison.  Simply substitute a portion of the meat your recipe usually calls for with venison that is either diced or ground.  Ground venison with pork sausage in chilli takes rib-sticking to a whole new level. 

Deer jerky is a food group all its own.  Spicy, chewy, and mouth watering, it would keep forever, but is always gone before any expiration date could ever be determined.  The recipe below can be a foundation for any hunter’s “special” brand of deer jerky – just experiment with seasonings for the taste you like best. 

• Cut 1 pound of venison across the grain into ¼ inch thick strips.
• Prepare a marinade of ½ teaspoon each ground pepper, salt, onion & garlic powders, and crushed red pepper with 1 tablespoon each A-1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and Louisiana hot sauce or Tabasco plus ½ cup of soy sauce and ¼ cup of brown sugar.
• Put your venison strips and the marinade in a covered bowl or zip-lock bag and place in the refrigerator overnight.
• Take venison from the marinade and place on dehydrator racks, without touching, for 24-30 hours – or until the jerky bends, but is not brittle.
• If you use an oven, preheat to 150° and lay your venison strips on baking sheets or sheets of heavy aluminium foil without touching and cook for 8-10 hours, or until the jerky bends, but is not brittle.

Let your jerky cool, then store it in an air tight container or plastic bag and refrigerate.  Your jerky can keep for weeks if kept refrigerated.  

Enjoy your spicy treat and be prepared to have nosey neighbors dropping by – jerky is notoriously “fragrant” – and losing a lot of your jerky to “taste tests.”