Meet the Meat Part One

Venison encompass several game animals found in North America.  The characteristics of the meat I'm going to talk about are basically the same, although the flavor changes. 

• Antelope ~ Strictly speaking, not venison, its antelope not a member of the deer family.  It is the strongest flavored meat of group
• Mule deer ~ Large bodied deer, valued primarily for its large horns.  Even if you get a smaller Mulley you can mount the horns and pass it off as a large white tail, your friends will be impressed.  The meat tends to be stronger flavored than the whitetail
• White tail ~ Two basic categories, "Up North Cedar Swamp deer" and corn feed.  In Wyoming we have normal forest run deer.  Cedar Swamp deer are gamier.  All other varieties are mild, with corn feed being very close to lean grass feed long horn in taste and texture  
• Elk ~ Mid to mild in flavor slightly better than whitetail
• Caribou ~ I've never had a bad bou, I suspect that "bad bou's" are the result of improperly caring for the meat.  Delicious is an understatement, although admittedly its been 18 years or so since I lucked into an invite to eat some
• Moose ~ Yum!  Mild in flavor and to a palette accustomed to all I can kill antelope, awesome! 

The number one, most important factor, in having good flavor on the table is care of the meat in the field.  Kill it quick.  Gut it out and cool it off fast.   Preferably hang the meat so it has an opportunity to get as much blood out as possible and age slightly.

Ok, that said, sometimes its not possible to control those factors, if someone is giving you the meat, or if you decided to kill your game in early October.  If that's the case, and even if its not, the best thing you can do is get ALL the blood out of the meat before doing anything else.

What I do, even if its my own kill, properly cooled and aged, is thaw or soak the steaks/roast in cold, non-chlorinated water.  That's right step number one is get the blood out of your meat.  Fortunately this is easy.  Thaw your meat in cold water.  This will draw out any extra blood that is present.  Obviously this is hard to do with hamburg, but for now lets focus on steaks and roasts.  This is also true for eating organs, get the blood out!

Venison has very little fat marbled in the meat muscle.  This is part of what makes it so healthy to eat.  This is also what makes it harder than a rib eye to cook right.  That said, its still pretty easy to cook if you follow Res's Rules for Cooking Venison.

1. Get all the blood out
2. Meat must be room temp before cooking
3. Marinating is helpful, although not necessary
4. You don't have to over cook it
1. If you do, and it's tough its your fault
2. Shoe leather is not toothsome
5. Mid well (gray with juice) is a done as you want to cook it
6. Mid rare to medium is plenty (remember you got all the blood out, its going to taste fine)
1. Exception, the crockpot its going to get well done, that's ok you're cooking with moisture and the meat will be fine
2. Exception, the Dutch oven, again you should be incorporating moisture with this method so well done is going to turn out fine

That's enough for this post.  The wife and kids are coming back this afternoon so I'll try to fire off the rest latter.