I love to cook using foods that grew on the farm. Our own beef and pork and vegetables from the garden are a given, but there is special value in the wild crops that grow on their own as well. We love wild game, especially this year when it has been our main source of protein, and the maple syrup from the sugar bush on the Northwest corner of the place is incredible. And there are a lot of ways to use it besides drowning pancakes.
Up until this winter we didn't really know how to use venison. Alan usually gets at least one deer. He is a good hunter and a good shot, so the meat is much better than that from an animal that was wounded, chased over five or six miles, and finally dispatched after an incredible amount of stress. Still, it wasn't beef. Stew and steak were about the best we could do and it turned out edible but not wonderful. I always cooked it like beef, which resulted in something that was okay, but not as good as beef.
This winter, the winter of no beef, necessity has become the mother of invention. Thus we are inventing recipes for deer (and goose, grouse and cottontail) because we were sick of eating leathery stuff that tastes like hooves.
One thing we never succeeded with before this year is roast venison. Every way we tried to roast deer before either turned out dry, stringy, and gamy or rare. I will not eat wild game that isn't completely cooked.
Enter the wonders of maple syrup. The Iroquois who lived here before us paired the two in their cooking and they sure knew what they were doing. Once we took a lesson from them and added maple syrup to most of our recipes, venison has become a delight rather than a chore.
The other night I decided to make some roast venison for sandwiches.
First I sauteed chopped onion, garlic, lovage (for which you can substitute celery) and Italian seasoning in a thick pot. When the onions began to soften I tossed a couple of slabs of venison, cut for roasts, on top and gave them a good browning, turning them occasionally with tongs.
When the outside was brown I added a cup of vinegar to the pot and boiled the whole shooting match for a bit. Then I poured maple syrup over the roasts.
Thickly.
Don't be afraid that wild sugar will make your meat taste sweet. It doesn't, but rather adds a smokey, savory flavor that is incredible, something like mild barbecue, but not at all acidy.
Next I added enough water to keep the meat from drying out, maybe halfway up the side of the roasts, tucked the pot tightly closed with foil, and roasted in a 350 degree oven for as long as it took to milk and do chores, (maybe a couple of hours out in the real world).
Most of the water cooked away and we ended up with venison that was as tender as the finest beef, succulent and juicy and amazingly flavorful. We made sandwiches on nice, fat hard rolls, then used the leftovers in a rice casserole, with zucchini from last summer and some really, really good rice we found over at the Dollar General in Fonda. I wish we had cut a lot more roasts instead of the stew and steak we did make. Next year........
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6 comments:
That sounds yummy, 3C. It's going on my "try it!" list.
I used to have a great stroganoff recipe for venison, but it got lost someplace along the way, and I've never been able to duplicate it. It didn't land at your house, did it?
And my most favorite venison was this: My mother used to fry up a pan of onion rings. She'd take a partially-thawed roast or steak and slice it paper-thin. Then she'd flash-fry them with the onions.
Sounds good!
Do you hang your deer and age them in a cooler as is done to beef?
The farm I worked on as a teen would often have a deer hanging in the walk in cooler during hunting season.
I'm going to pass this on to the wife. We've got lots of maple syrup from helping lead the bird walks at the state park nearby and a couple of large hunks of venison I call "roasts" from November.
We'll skip you're timing method, however. Milking chores around here mean going to the grocery.
That makes me wish I hunted better, much better.
I do a roast in the pressure cooker. I brown the roast in a bit of oil, add mushrooms and a chopped onion, and water to cover half the roast. Cook under pressure about 25 minutes. You can do it covered on simmer on the top of the stove too, adding water if it gets too low. When the meat is tender, I take it out and slice it. To the liquid I add a package of brown or mushroom gravy and cook til thickened. I then return the meat to the pot and simmer til heated through. I served it to my cousin, a hunter, who was amazed when I told him it was venison. It was cornfed, but venison, nonetheless.
PS, I'm JOATED's wife.
akagaga, I hope it works as well for you as it did for us. We are now wishing we had made a lot more roasts! Your mom's recipe sounds wonderful too. We have done something similar and like it really well. I have become a big fan of venison this winter!
FC, we generally don't hang them more than overnight at most. The weather is rarely suitable and we don't have a cooler. I suspect I could use less vinegar in the recipes if we did...
Joated, I was hesitant to try using maple syrup on our deer, but I am sure glad that we did!
Earl, I am so grateful for Alan's skill at stalking and his incredible aim. We have not bought one bit of beef all winter!
Terry, thanks for commenting!! That sounds really, really good. I am a huge fan of almost anything with mushrooms...don't have a pressure cooker, but we will try the stove top method. Thanks so much!!
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