CAMP/HOME ROAST VENISON
2-3 pounds rump roast
2 garlic cloves - slivered
1 large sweet onion - thinly sliced
3 large Jonathan apples - cored, quartered, NOT PEELED
1-12 whole peeled carrots & whole peeled potatoes (quartered)
(Depending on size of pan & roast)
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans Campbell’s golden mushroom soup (Optional - 2 ea. cans French onion soup instead of mushroom)
Garlic/onion salt to taste
Lemon pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
6 drops Tabasco
1 bay leaf
Bacon grease
Trim all feasible fat from venison to avoid strong flavor. If desired, add beef suet to recipe. (We prefer not to.) Melt bacon grease on top burner in roaster pan sized to roast. Brown roast in pan till thoroughly seared on all sides and remove from burner. Cut slits in meat and insert clove slivers evenly around roast.
Place soup in pot over medium heat. Add Worcestershire, Tabasco, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Simmer until gently blended. Stir often and do not allow to scorch.
Place carrots and potato quarters evenly around roast in pan. Place apple quarters and onion slices on top of meat and vegetables. Pour heated mushroom soup mix over the assemblage in the roasting pan.
Cook in preheated oven at home at 375 degrees until done (about 1 & 1/2 hours).
A variation of this at camp uses a Dutch oven with a self basting lid. Dig a pit and fill with hot coals. (We build a fire in a pit 30 inches deep and 30-36-inches in diameter and burn till full of coals.) Make sure lid is seated properly and work Dutch oven into a hollow in coals with a shovel. (Pit should only have red hot coals in it at this point.) Rake coals gently (do not dislodge lid!) over top of lid with shovel leaving the oven’s bail standing upright. Shovel dirt over the top of the pit being careful not to dislodge the lid and also making sure the bail sticks up where it is easy to locate later.
We have fixed this recipe in camp at breakfast and returned from a hard day’s hunt that evening to a fine roast dinner. Works better than the crock pot back home.
Serve gravy over veggies and/or bread. Enjoy!
Recipe Courtesy Cliff Keeler from the “NRA Members’ Wild Game Cook Book.”
VENISON MEAT LOAF
We do not grind deer but we have elk. This recipe will work for both as well as moose.
1 lb. ground venison
1/2 lb. ground pork
1 1/2 c. crushed dry bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/4 c. finely chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped green pepper (optional)
4 beef bouillon cubes
1/8 tsp. celery salt
1/4 tsp. lemon pepper
2 tsp. worcestershire sauce
Mix venison well with crushed beef bouillon cubes and set aside. Blend chopped onion, green peppers, bread crumbs, and eggs with a fork. Add ground pork and set aside. Add celery salt, pepper, and worcestershire sauce to the venison mix. Now, knead all ingredients together thoroughly. Shape into a suitable pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven about one hour or until done. Let it stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
VENISON JERKY
2 pounds venison (Strips cut from hindquarter cuts best.)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
1-1 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp accent
3 drops Tabasco
1/4 tsp liquid smoke - optional
Choice meat cuts make the best venison but meat may even be
stripped from the ribs if desired. We prefer a lean roast to start with. Trim all possible fat from the meat while cutting in strips with the grain approximately one fourth inch thick by one half inch wide. Combine all other ingredients into a marinade. Put meat and marinade into a covered container and refrigerate for 24 hours turning several times.
Place strips of meat on small racks over drip pans covered with aluminum foil. (I use racks employed to let home made bread cool on the counter after baking.) Cook in oven at lowest possible heat leaving oven door open a crack to vent moisture cooked from meat. Heat should not be over 125 degrees and the closer to 100 degrees the better.
Jerky is done when it just starts to break when bent. 10-30 minutes depending on temperature achieved (slower is better). Store in air tight fruit jars out of light or bag and freeze. It will keep several months in the jars without fear of spoilage. The freezer will keep it in definitely but the packaging should have all air removed to prevent ice crystals forming in the container. We prefer dry storage for maximum flavor retention.
DON’T TRUST YOUR BEST FRIEND UNCHAPERONED WITH YOUR SUPPLY OF FINISHED JERKY. THEY CAN’T HELP IT AND YOU WON’T FORGIVE THEM.
VENISON JERKY - VARIATION
Baste strips cut as above with your favorite bar-b-que sauce and cook
as above. I have added celery seeds to the mix before basting the strips as well as liquid smoke. Dry until meat just starts to break when bent as above.
Quick - little mess - AND GUARD IT CLOSELY! Friendships have been known to dissolve instantly when temptations jeopardized personal caches of “jerked” venison.
Tips on Field Dressing and Prepping Venison and Other Wild Game
The object is to get the meat to the table in prime condition. The following tips help us insure premium table quality.
All possible fat should be removed from venison before cooking. If possible, do it during butchering. If processed by a commercial processor, you may have to trim the fat when you unwrap it. They simply do not have time given the many animals received in a short time.
This is why we hesitate recommending grinding venison into deer burger. If the fat is not trimmed before cooking, I guarantee it will have a strong aroma when cooking. And, it will taste like it smells. This accounts for 99.9% of the negative comments about venison’s culinary qualities.
I have home-butchered more than 100 deer. I know first hand that basic care can put choice prime meat on the table. It must be field dressed promptly. Wipe, rinse, etc. the body cavity.
I have washed them in creeks, trolled them in a lake, or simply wiped with a clean rag before placing on the camp meat pole. Leave the hide on till hung on the meat pole to minimize soiling the meat.
A matter of great controversy rages whether to bleed a deer or not. Whether shot in the head or chest, a dead animal’s stilled heart no longer pumps blood through its circulatory system. The only blood draining from the body by cutting its throat after death is from the body cavity resulting from its final injury.
The fastest way to remove that is open it up, field dress it and turn the cavity to ground to drain. There is usually several gallons of fluid. The sooner removed, the sooner the meat cools enhancing the quality at table side.
Soak small game (squirrels, rabbits, dove, quail, etc.) and fish in salt water solutions after dressing. The saline solution helps clean the meat as well as thinning and soaking blood from flesh. The meat can be hand pressed in the solution to force blood out.
We devised a similar technique with large plastic containers to soak quarters of venison before butchering. Trim all blood shot portions, fat layers and discard.
All wild game has its own flavor. Usually, we do not marinate any preferring not to hide delicate flavors unique to each. I am not talking about strong “wild” flavors regarding the latter. Properly prepared, there is no strong “wild” flavor. We snicker at suggestions wild meat be marinated in milk, wine, etc. to hide the “wild” taste.
Venison Roast with Apples
1 ea. 3-5 lb. venison roast
peeled whole carrots
washed and quartered unpeeled potatoes
1 ea. white onion cut into walnut sized chunks
3 ea. medium jonathan apples cored, quartered and unpeeled
garlic salt to taste
lemon pepper to taste
1 ea. whole garlic clove cut into slivers
2 ea. cans mushroom soup (plain or golden)
bacon grease
onion salt
Brown the roast in bacon grease. Place in roaster pan. Cut shallow slits in meat and insert slivers of cloves. Scatter onions, carrots, apples and potatoes around and over the roast. Pour mushroom soup over the whole ensemblage. Salt and pepper to taste.
Bake at 325 degrees in pre heated oven at 30 minutes per lb. of roast or until done.
The number of people served determines the size of roast and number of veggies. I use the biggest roaster pan I can find and fill it up. Best warm-overs I ever ate!