New to Deer Meat? Here are Some Basics to get you Started

Little Rock, AR-(Ammoland.com)-Deer meat. Venison. They’re one and the same, and there is a lot of it available across Arkansas during and even after hunting seasons.

But not everyone is familiar with deer meat and how to prepare it. If you’re a somewhat puzzled person with deer meat on hand and no experience cooking it, here are a few basics from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Shake negative notions about deer meat out of your head. “Wild taste” and “gamy” don’t enter the picture if the meat is good (handled properly). Don’t try to compare deer meat to beef or any other meat you’re accustomed to cooking. It’s different. It’s better, with some basic knowledge of wild game cooking.

For starters, get it in your mind and keep it there that deer meat is extremely lean. That’s one reason it is so much healthier for you than beef, pork, even chicken and turkey. But extremely lean also means you have to keep the deer meat moist in cooking or else you’ll be preparing a substitute for shoe leather or roofing shingle. Let the deer meat dry out, and you’ve messed up first class.

This means don’t fry it.

There can be exceptions, but we’re talking basics here. If you want chicken fried steak, use beef, not your deer meat. And immediately we turn to the term braise and simmer. These work with deer meat.

Instead of the chicken fried steak technique, try cutting the deer meat into serving size pieces, brown quickly in a small amount of hot oil then turn the heat down and simmer it in mushroom soup until tender. You may prefer the brown-type mushroom soup over the cream of mushroom type, but it’s your choice. Both will work as will other liquids.

Work the seasonings in at the simmering stage, not in the browning. Salt, pepper, oregano, chili powder, chopped onion, diced green pepper – use your experience, your imagination and your preferences here. Serve the finished product over rice, over noodles or by itself. Chances are you’ll be proud of the result.

This next suggestion for handling a gift of deer meat may raise some disagreements. But think of grinding the meat or cutting it into half-inch or smaller cubes. Now all sorts of cooking avenues await you, many eliminating the no-no of letting the deer meat get too dry in cooking.

Chili. Spaghetti. Meat loaf. Sloppy Joes. Stroganoff. Stew.

These are just starters. You can add to them. Deer meat is excellent for any of these methods, and you can pretty well handle it like beef or other familiar meat for all these moist cooking dishes.

Good, tasty roasts can come from deer meat, but these may be a little difficult for the novice wild game cook. Somehow the notion abounds that wild game should be cooked to well done or beyond. Wrong. Think medium. Think medium rare. Think and keep thinking moist, moist.

The benefactor who brought you that deer meat probably didn’t bring the bests of the roasts, and more than probably the benefactor did not give you the tenderloins, the most prized of deer meat. Grind or cube that chunk of deer meat you were thinking of roasting. You’ll improve the odds of a tasty table dish.

A final note: Have fun with your gift of deer meat. Deer hunting is rich in story telling. Create one of your own to go with the first-time dish you have prepared. Give it a creative, even far-out, name. Work up a tale to go with it.

Most of all, enjoy the deer meat. There is lots of it here in Arkansas.

Source: http://www.ammoland.com/2015/03/new-to-deer-meat-here-are-some-basics-to-get-you-started/