After 40 years of hunting you'd think I would have done this by now, but no. It's taking a portion of a deer shot the same morning and cooking it in deer camp for several of us to enjoy that evening.

How would you go about it? Assume we've got a small cabin and everything except electricity.

Take the loin (backstrap) and cut it into 2 inch pieces. Next, butterfly each 2 inch piece so you have small steaks. Flour and season the steaks and fry to a medium rare in butter or olive oil...viola....

Of course, one of my favorites is venison stew. Some potatoes, carrots, celery...whatever seasoning you like...a dark beer thrown in for liquid along with some water or beef broth and chunks of venison. Let simmer for an hour or more and there you have it...serve with some nice crusty bread....mmmmmm

An "old indian" I hunted with once did this. Slice the meat as thin as possible, fry some onions and mushrooms, then remove from pan. Fry the deer meat then put it all together and cook a little while longer. It's simple and good. One of the problems with frest meat is it hasn't relaxed yet and it's usually pretty tough-compared to meat a few days old.

an't no bad way of cooking fresh killt deer in the woods

Many good ideas here..and I like the way ddrhook cuts right to the point..

How would y'all go for a BBQ? Maybe a whole leg. Who's up for that?

If it's your own permanent camp, you should build yourself a small smoker. They're a doddle to build and nothing tastes quite as good as home smoked venison.

Funnily enough, I'm just writing about that very subject for a small book I'm working on.

quote:

Originally posted by JKeith:
Of course, one of my favorites is venison stew. Some potatoes, carrots, celery...whatever seasoning you like...a dark beer thrown in for liquid along with some water or beef broth and chunks of venison. Let simmer for an hour or more and there you have it...serve with some nice crusty bread....mmmmmm

What he said.

quote:

Originally posted by JKeith:
Of course, one of my favorites is venison stew. Some potatoes, carrots, celery...whatever seasoning you like...a dark beer thrown in for liquid along with some water or beef broth and chunks of venison. Let simmer for an hour or more and there you have it...serve with some nice crusty bread....mmmmmm

If you like that, you'll like this:

http://funkymunky.co.za/potjierecipes.html

Interesting recipes...gotta try some of those. By the way, what's a "pig's trotter"? I'm guessing pigs feet but really have no idea....

Yup, it's the foot.

Really, you can chuck anything you like in.

The dambie/dumplings are an especially nice touch and the key is the slow cooking.

Pretty standard issue here is to take out the tenderloins- that way you don't need to skin the deer, once the guts are out they are very easy to access.
Cut them into 1" long pieces and fry with onions in butter, salt, pepper and garlic powder will make some very fine eats. Don't overcook it. I can pretty well guarantee you will not have to worry about leftovers. the pan gravy that is left behind is the best thing in the world over taters- don't throw it out!

Fresh heart done the same way is very,very good after you get over the idea that it is heart you are eating. It is just a muscle- not an organ meat like liver, kidneys etc.. slice it about 1/4" thick and fry as above very,very good. Try it you won't regret it.

if you have a barbecue, as mentioned smoking tenderloins is top notch. I usually leve the tenderloin whole. rub with seasoning salt and pepper, use indirect heat baste with either garlic butter, barbecue sauce, or leave them just with the rub- it all works. Don't overcook them, make sure that they are still pink inside and you will have food better than the finest you can buy.

There are many other pieces that could be cooked in camp but the tenderloins are easy and don't complicate/compromise butchering the carcass later. If you have too many guys to be fed by the tenderloins then by all means do the backstraps off one of the deer.
this could be done in many ways, cut them into steaks, fry or bbq over an open fire. cut one into a roast-don't over cook it.

Oh Yeah and if I forgot to mention it-don't overcook it!

we deer hunt with about 20 guys and I am the unofficial cook for the week. We butcher our own deer and have a bbq butcher party at the end of the week while we process the deer. I usually use all of the above methods and this year slow smoked a whole fawn on an offset smoker THAT was some good eats!

The way I was thinking would be Southern pit type BBQ. Of course, it's a bit labor intensive. Dig a pit, burn some wood to produce charcoal (hickory collected from the same farm), put that in the pit, add a grate for a whole small deer, and a cover on top, and take all day to cook it while basting it occasionally.

I got the idea from the BBQ spreads they put on here after opening day dove party shoots. It's an old tradition you see on some of your better hunts.

Take a hunk of meat from the shoulder add salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, sliced onion and peppers,a nice piece of pork fat(keeps the meat moist) and a small can of chilpoties (remove seeds if you don't like it hot). put it all in a dutch oven and cook on the fire slowly until the meat shreds easily. Fry up some tortillas. Presto deer camp tacos. I did this at camp this year and it worked great. I put the dutch oven down in the coals in the morning and buy the time I came back to camp around 1:00 it was done.

An old tradition in my family is to take the heart and liver spit them up and roast over the fire. Baste them with leftover bacon grease. makes a nice snack and goes well with your favorite cocktail.

Before I hang the deer up for aging I cut out the inner loin. Next day - typically - I just quickly fry it in hot olive oil with one chopped onion and salt and game spice. Excellent.

Cut backstrap (or one of the larger muscles from a ham) into pieces about 2-1/2" square. Place half a seeded jalapeno next to one side and wrap in a slice of peppered bacon. Marinate in Italian salad dressing for about one hour, and right before cooking, sprinkle with Tony Chachere's Cajun spice or similar. Grill over coals.

Speaking of the inner loin, I had something kind of unusual happen with a recent deer. I cut the loins out when field dressing but one was real small and the other side was unusually long. And the wierd part is that when we cooked them, the small one was good, but the bigger one was extremely tough. It tasted fine but just really chewy. I've never encountered that before on loins.

At any rate, all these ideas are making me hungry.

Here in "God Zone" we do DIY bush hunts with tent or bivy camps for 3 or 4 days.

I always pack a bottle or two of pepper or garlic steak powder from the supermarket.

I cut 1 inch thick steaks (do not add salt) and marinate with the steak powder for an hour or more (marinate in the morning & go hunting & come home & cook up).

Add salt & fry it on a hot pan - rare, medium or well done - as you like it.

Like Wetdog our hunting camp can't wait to fry up the liver and heart. sliced thin rolled in flour with and fryed. Some like it with a little ketchup and some like it plain. For breakfast the tenderloin and eggs are sooooooooo good.

Cut the loin of the deer in 2" thick steaks.
Marinade in Itialian salad dressing, or a mixture of garlic powder, some Mrs Dash, some pepper, and some onion powder with some Worcestershire Sauce, for 3 hours or so, refigerated of course.

Wrap with bacon and cool on the grill.

One of the best deer camp recipes I have enjoyed took a deboned hind quarter, criss-cross sliced fairly deep with sliced jalapeno peppers from a jar buried in the cuts. It was put on the grill, indirect heat, in the early morning and tended all day, basted with Italian dressing or liquid bast of choice frequently. By end of hunt, it was fork tender and gun-fight good to get your share! Pike Road, AL cookbook gets the credit!

quote:

An "old indian" I hunted with once did this. Slice the meat as thin as possible, fry some onions and mushrooms, then remove from pan. Fry the deer meat then put it all together and cook a little while longer. It's simple and good. One of the problems with frest meat is it hasn't relaxed yet and it's usually pretty tough-compared to meat a few days old.

I do the same thing only saute everything in butter and deglaze the pan with a little red wine. Let it cook down some and serve it over rice. It doesn't get much better that this...

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Cut backstrap (or one of the larger muscles from a ham) into pieces about 2-1/2" square. Place half a seeded jalapeno next to one side and wrap in a slice of peppered bacon. Marinate in Italian salad dressing for about one hour, and right before cooking, sprinkle with Tony Chachere's Cajun spice or similar. Grill over coals.

Audible:

Backstrap neatly trimmed of all silver skin, connective tissue, etc. (you will feel that you are wasting it, but it must be trimmed off)

Slice thinly (no thicker than half an inch)

Beat with mallet or jacard tenderizer to flatten

Soak briefly in jalapeño juice

Add salt and pepper

Place sliced jalapeno, water chestnut, and small amount of cream cheese into venison and fold over

Wrap in bacon and secure with toothpick

Grill to medium rare

Serve

What I do is the following. Take the liver and clean it (take off the outer membrane and bigger white gull tubes) Cut into small cubes or put it through a mincer. If you mince it dont go too fine. Cut a large onion to roughly the same size as the liver pieces. I like to put a tomatoe in as well, but that is optional. Season with salt, pepper and ad some chopped garlic and chutney (any kind you like)You could put some tabasco in and some sweet peppers. Mix in an egg to act as a binding agent.Mix well and leave to rest.

You now take the big intestine up to the anus and turn it inside out after you cut it from the small intestine and cleaned the dung out. Wash it propperly under running water. There will be a slimy membrane on the intestine. Wash it off and pull it off by hand, it comes off easily. Once it is clean, bind the one end off by tiing a knot or using a piece of chef string. Hang it out to dry. Do not casing inside out again. Use as is.
Fill the intestine with the liver and onion mixture using a plastic bottle top that you cut off to use as a funnel. Do not overfill the casing. Once all the mixture have been filled into the casing, tie the casing off, again by means of a knot or a piece of string.

Fry this saussage over a very low heat over the coals untill it is firm to the touch. The outside will be blackened but the inside is heaven. Enjoy as a sterter or with mash as a main. You will love it.

Dont try and braai it ofer to hot coals. The casing is fety fatty and it will create flames that will burn the casing and it will break. Take your time, it is well worth it.

When I cook in our camps I like it quick and easy. Take out a full exterior backstrap, remove all the fat and silver felt. Slice in 1/2'' pieces and sprinkle with Johnny's seasoning salt and good black pepper.

In a hot skillet with oil, throw in a bunch of diced potatoes, in a bit add some diced onions. When they are almost browned, start the deer steaks.

Drop the seasoned steaks in a plastic bag with flower, shake and drop in a medium heated skillet with a little oil.

Best when medium rare.

I have one beverage while cooking, another while eating and usually more for dessert.

Take the backstrap as mentioned earlier, butterly, and lightly coat with olive oil.

Sprinkle Mrs. Dash over it and let it sit til suppertme. Coat with flour and fry or sear and cook without the flour.

Another tried and true is, marinate in plain ol Italian Dressing, grill over coals till pink in the center serve with whatever else folks like.

Ok, guys. Got my knife and fork and napkin tucked into my shirt. When do we eat! Now I'm really hungry.

Bone out the whole hind quarter. Cut off the leg muscle just before the roast.Cut small slits with a sharp knife all around the roast, push fresh pcs. of garlic inside. Season with pepper and onion powder. Put into a large roaster. Put 3 or 4 pcs. of bacon across the top. Add 2 cans of beer. Put top of roaster on and slide into the oven. Cook at about 350 degrees for and hour or so. Pull it out and fill roaster with quartered potatoes, fresh mushrooms and quartered onions. Cook for a few more hours. The juice on the bottom makes a wonderful gravy. I don't think anybody can screw this recipe up. Makes one fine dinner. The smell is outta this world too!

quote:

Originally posted by tjoks:
What I do is the following. Take the liver and clean it (take off the outer membrane and bigger white gull tubes) Cut into small cubes or put it through a mincer. If you mince it dont go too fine. Cut a large onion to roughly the same size as the liver pieces. I like to put a tomatoe in as well, but that is optional. Season with salt, pepper and ad some chopped garlic and chutney
(any kind you like)You could put some tabasco in and some sweet peppers. Mix in an egg to act as a binding agent.Mix well and leave to rest.

You now take the big intestine up to the anus and turn it inside out after you cut it from the small intestine and cleaned the dung out. Wash it propperly under running water. There will be a slimy membrane on the intestine. Wash it off and pull it off by hand, it comes off easily. Once it is clean, bind the one end off by tiing a knot or using a piece of chef string. Hang it out to dry. Do not casing inside out again. Use as is.
Fill the intestine with the liver and onion mixture using a plastic bottle top that you cut off to use as a funnel. Do not overfill the casing. Once all the mixture have been filled into the casing, tie the casing off, again by means of a knot or a piece of string.

Fry this saussage over a very low heat over the coals untill it is firm to the touch. The outside will be blackened but the inside is heaven. Enjoy as a sterter or with mash as a main. You will love it.

Dont try and braai it ofer to hot coals. The casing is fety fatty and it will create flames that will burn the casing and it will break. Take your time, it is well worth it.

I am. Going to give this a try. Sounds good.

I