MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — While many people are getting ready to cook their Thanksgiving turkey tomorrow, the Department of Natural Resources has some tips for serving up that deer you just brought home.
Wildlife specialist John Motoviloff says the thing to remember about venison is that it’s a dry, lean meat, and that overcooking will be the death of any sort of meal you’re having with it. “You only need to kill it once. You keep it moist by marinating it and grilling it quickly to medium or medium rare, or the other way to do it is a low and slow type procedure.” If you’re roasting your venison, he recommends using a crock pot or dutch oven set to 200 degrees and just letting it coast through a long cook time until it gets fork tender.
Many people will be taking their deer out to be processed by a butcher, but Motoviloff says disassembling your deer into venison just takes time and practice. You want to make sure you remove as much of the connective tissue like tendons or silverskin from your meat. “That and overcooking are principal reasons why people don’t like to eat venison, or think they don’t. That’s where are the strong flavored gaminess resides. I would even err on the side of losing a little bit of meat to get rid of that stuff.” You’ll also want to make sure you keep that meat cool while you’re working with it to prevent contamination and to make it easier to cut.
If you’re planning on making some sausage you’ll want to add some extra fat to the meat before you grind it. “The ratio I use is one part fairly fatty ground pork or ground beef to venison, and that helps out. And it also helps hamburger, it keeps it a lot more moist on the grill.” Motoviloff wouldn’t give away his personal recipe for spicing up his venison kielbasa, but said he likes to use caraway seeds, some garlic and some good smoked paprika.
Motoviloff says there are a number of good resources from the UW-Extension that are available online. We’ve got their PDF on wild game cooking attached to this story.
