Fat and very tasty
 

I took a freezer inventory and looks like last year's deer will be fini on time. Ducks need some work. I was amazed at the fat on these steaks from last years 1 1/2 year old (yearling) doe. Put 'em on the grill and man were they awesome. No marinade, just salt and pepper. Pink and juicy. Makes their destroying the plots/crops worthwile!

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RE: Fat and very tasty
 

those are nice looking steaks. There is nothing better then venison steaks on the grill. I am currently out of them so bow season starts in September. I hope to change all of that. Although all I have been seeing on my walks and scouting is turkey. Then again, roast turkey is good too.. :D

RE: Fat and very tasty
 

Those do look good.

"There is nothing better then venison steaks on the grill."

Well I'm out of venison but I still have some elk that tastes mighty good. I've got a month till my kids go on their muley hunt to make some more room in the freezer. If things go good I may have to buy a larger freezer next month, I hope. If not then maybe in December when my oldest and I go on our elk hunt. One can only hope.

RE: Fat and very tasty
 

My wife got home and ate the 3rd one. Said it was really good and asked me what I marinated them in.:D:D:D Salt & pepper "marinade"! She didn't believe me. To think when I married her she didn't like venison. Now it's ducks, geese, doves, deer and fish, lots of fish. Fall. Gotta love it.

RE: Fat and very tasty
 

dmurphy - for $50 you can pick up a good used freezer. Get it, plug it in, and put some heat on those kids to fill it!

RE: Fat and very tasty
 

cayugad, do you have a fall turkey season?

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Yea, I hear ya.

If things work out I hope to also visit family in Mississippi around Thanksgiving and maybe add some whitetail to the diet. Sounds like I need to go ahead and get that freezer now.

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Years ago I dated a woman that swore she hated venison no matter how it was cooked and would not eat it under threat of death. She stopped over to the house one afternoon/evening around dinner timeunannounced and I happened to be making venison steaks on the grill. So she of course helped herself to dinner. I never told her what she was eating. Afterward she commented on how wonderful the steaks were and asked what store I bought them at... It was then that I broke the news to her. She doubted me so bad, she actually checked my trash for meat wrappers. When she found the white freezer paper with my scratching on it, she was shocked. I then asked her where she had eaten venison in the past and how it was cooked. She could not remember. I suspect she was one of them people that made a decision in her mind of what was good and what she disliked, without really tasting and making an informed decision.

A real favorite of mine is to salt, pepper, Lowery's seasoning salt the steak. Then throw that on a hot grill. While it cooks, paint it with some Famous Dave's original barbecue sauce... cook to rare, and serve hot..

is it September yet? :eek:

RE: Fat and very tasty
 

I've been wondering how you managed to retire in the North woods at such an early age. That explains a lot. Your sauces are very good. ;)

I do think most people who don't care for venison had it prepared by someone to whom it was given. They assume they have to cook the crap out of it because it's "wild" and turn it into leather. Their loss.

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My first experiences eating venison were at my uncle's house. My aunt would cut it into stew size peices,coat it in seasoned flour and then fry it. It would sometimes be tough but was not too bad tasting. I prefer to cook it just like I would beef, roast or steak or stew meat. Sometimes I grill the steaks without seasoning, sometimes with a little BBQ sauce, or whatever strikes my fancy at the time. As long as its not over cooked, its good. Man am I getting hungery.

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No turkey hunting for me this year.. I did not apply for the permits.I do not have time to run to the southern end of the State to the farms...

Also I have an old dog that is not too friendly when I am not around. When I am near, he could care less. Let me leave and Cujo comes out. He can not be taken anywhere. The second I go hunting, he gets real nasty, and raises cain where ever he is... So once he goes to the happy hunting ground (which I figured would be years ago) then I can start taking some nice hunting trips.

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I had almost the exact same thing happen to me only it was ground deer meat that I made in my lazagna. Only she got mad that I "tricked" her... I suspect that most people don't know how to cook it or they leave the hide on it for a week before processing it. I know I was at my inlaws house one time and someone had given them some deer meat to fix and it quite possibly could have been the worse meat I've ever had in my life. That would explain why some people would hate it.

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Yeah buddy! I did just that last night. Did a quick marinadewith teriyaki, garlic, olive oil and orange juice; threw them on the grill and cooked to about rare/medium rare.Had a baked patato and salad to round out the meal. Got up this morning andfixed a steak and cheddarsandwich on toastwithwhat little leftovers there were. My kids, ages 4 and 9, lovevenison. My wife was real picky about it for years, until the kidscame along and started eating the heck fire out of it:). Now, it's mostly what she uses for stews,chili, fajitas, spaghetti and such. Every now and then, she'll pick up some nice beef steaks, if she finds a really good deal on them, but for the most part it's deer meat in our house.

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I been butchering for some 40 years and have a lot of friends that like venison and have parted with steaks and roast and stew but the backstraps stay with me.

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MMMMMM, some spicy backstrap stir fry sounds good for the weekend.:)

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I like to slice my steaks thin. I then lightly flour the steaks and sautee(how do you like that word) them in butter with Lawrey's seasoning. Then I make a steak SAMMICH(with a slice of cheese). Am I the only one that does this. Oh and do not forget the Kaiser buns. NO PEPPERS-but maybe a few mushrooms.

Hey Cayugad-if you travel through WV-stop by-I will give you a couple of packages to get you through. My mother cooks it in a slow cooker with gravy, it is really great. As a matter of fact their is some on the heat right now. VENISON for lunch today. Tom.

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I'm curious, do you guys hang your deer. I've never hung a deer more than a day. Maybe I don't notice the difference because I shoot a lot of doe's. What do you guys do?

Tom

RE: Fat and very tasty
 

Hanging a deer I think is related to the temperature where you hang... For instance, if it is very warm, I never hang a deer. Say I get a bow deer in early September when day time temps can be high. The the deer is brought out of the woods, hosed down real good to clean and cool it, andskinned, washed again to remove any loose hair from skinning, and wrapped in a big cotton game bag. Next day it is butchered.

In November & Decemberduring modern & muzzleloaderseason, I have been know to hang them for a day or two, but the trouble then is, they freeze solid many times and are hard to butcher without saws, etc.. One deer season I remember, it was -28º below zero. It hurt your hands just to handle the deer and skin it, the thing was so cold.

What I do is again, wash them free of blood, skin them right away, wash then a final time, and if it is cold, hang them in the garage until they get (how do I describe this..) firm but not frozen solid. Then they are easy to de-bone and butcher. I de-bone all the meat I cut up. Any scraps worth saving goes into the grinder for sausage or hamburger, and the ribs are quartered and cooked on the outdoor grill. The back straps are always butter fly cut, and the steaks are cut 3/4 inch thick, and theroasts according to muscle groups are cut...

I envy you people that know how to really butcher an animal. I have friends that "think" they know how to butcher, but there is a big difference in the way I do my deer and a professional.

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The gentleman that processes deer for me lets them hang in his meat locker for 3-4 days before butchering. He's been doing it for years and does a really nice job on the cuts. I wish I could hang mine here at the house and do the processing myself, but it stays fairly warm here into late October/early November. Plus, I don't have a privacy fence and some of my neighbors would have a stroke seeing a deer hanging in my back yard. I really missthe family farm back home sometimes.

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I have a friend back in TN that fills a couple of freezers with venison each year. He does his own processing due to the cost of paying someone to butcher 12 to 15 deer being so expensive. He has a refridgerator that he dedicates to deer during the season. He skinsand quarters them and then places them in the fridge for a few days to a week to age before cutting them up and packaging for the freezer.

I have been doing the same thing for the last few years with both venison and elk and I really like the way the meat tastes, very mild and tender. I have even let some age as long as 2 weeks but prefer to not go over a week if possible. Just make sure the temp stays around 34 to 36 degrees.

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I bone all my meat so it's ready for the pan right out of the wrapper.No fat period as this is where you get the wild taste.I dip steaks in scambled eggs then in bread crumbs[spiced ]and into a med heat frypan with butter.When the blood comes through the off side it's time to flip them and do the flipside.On homemade bread with A1 steak sauce and away we go.........This is the time of year I give away surplus deer meat cause fresh stuff is only a month away...........Harold [Ate 7 deer and one cow moose since last fall]

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I also debone the meat before I put it into the fridge to age. Forgot to put that in earlier.

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I'm more of dmurphy's ilk. We use to hang a deer for close to a week, in the hide, when I was a boy. Back then our deer were mostly killed during the one and only 1 week firearm season. That was late November and winters were colder then. Since then I've had to deal with bow and early muzzleloader weather, warmer winters, and deer meat. I've not been hanging them and they're really good anyway. But I've also grown more particular about the deer I kill. That's a luxury, I know. I'm basically of the belief that, where I live and deer are crop fed, I probably could not tell the difference in hung or not hung, in a deer under 3 years old. A deer that is tough and chewy, would have benefited by hanging, IMO. The time to make that decision is when skinning. If you'er cuttin' every time you're pullin' better hang 'em or you won't have nuttin'.

This is making me hungry.