Northern Hearty Venison Stew Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What cut of venison is best for stew? ›

Because stew meat is cut from muscles that do a lot of work during the deer's lifetime (like the neck & shoulder), it offers excellent flavor, but isn't suitable for fast cooking like searing, stir frying, or grilling.

Venison cooks faster than beef, and when cooking it rare, it needs to only reach a temperature of 130 degrees. If venison reaches 150 degrees, it begins to toughen.

Venison is much leaner than beef, so to get the richness found in beef stews, you must add fat. Lots and lots of fat. And we have three recipes that show you how to do it.

Large cuts of venison taste best when pot-roasted for several hours. If you have access to a crock pot, use any recipe for beef pot roast and you'll be pleasantly surprised. However, instead of cooking for two to four hours, venison may require substantially longer cooking time for the meat to become tender.

Soaking it

Many hunters suggest soaking your game meat in vinegar. However, vinegar's acidity can often dry the meat, making it especially tough. Instead, try soaking the meat in milk or even buttermilk, which will produce better results with most wild animals, especially when dealing with backstraps.

Soaking: The most common soaking liquids are buttermilk, saltwater, white milk, vinegar, lemon juice and lime juice. While some hunters swear by certain soaking methods to take the “gamey” flavor away or bleed the meat after processing, others don't find it all that helpful.

Mix one teaspoon cornflour with a tablespoon of room temperature water and add to your stew. Then bring to the boil and cook until desired thickness is reached. Cornflour is a great gluten-free thickener. It has a slightly more gelatinous texture, so only add a teaspoon at time or your sauce may become a bit goopy.

Hanging your meat, skin on, for about two weeks is the best option. Aging the meat allows the animal's natural enzymes to break down the connective tissues and mellows the flavor. Cihelka said this is the reason his venison is so tender.

Marinades tenderize (soften muscle fibers) and enhance the flavor of venison. Marinades can add fat and calories to this lean cut of meat. Always be marinate meats in the refrigerator. Always include a high-acid liquid like lemon or tomato juice, vinegar or wine to soften the muscle fibers.

Like any meat , Deer meat to is tenderized by beating it, by marinating it with mild acids like lemon juice, sour curd, buttermilk, vinegar etc for minimum 4 hours . The fibers need to be cut across if you cut along the fibers the meat will be tough and chewy.

What herbs go with venison? ›

Cooks often find that the stronger flavor of wild game meat can make the meat difficult to season well. Herbs offer the perfect solution. Bay, juniper berries, rosemary, sage, savory, and sweet marjoram all pair well with venison, as well as many other wild game meats.

I just usually season the deer meat the same way I would season regular beef. For example, for tacos, I just throw in a little chili powder and ground cumin and cook like normal. Same with a roast – I just season with a little salt and pepper and cook like normal.

Venison is a good protein choice for people with cardiovascular disease. Venison differs from red meat in part because it is leaner and has less fat and fewer calories.

Next time you're shopping for stew beef, look at your options and see what cuts of meat will work best for your recipe. For example, chuck is a lean and tender cut of beef that works well in stew. However, if you would prefer a thicker and more flavorful stew, short ribs or oxtail may be better choices for you.

The best cuts of stew meat are lean with a high concentration of collagen-rich connective tissues—such as chuck or shoulder cuts—that also have some fat marbling for flavor. Lean cuts of meat come from parts of the animal that have lots of muscle, like the legs.

Here are some common ingredients found in a delicious venison stew: Venison: Venison is the star of the stew and provides a lean and tender meat base. It is usually cut into bite-sized pieces with the sinew removed. Aromatics: Onions, garlic, and sometimes shallots are used to create a fragrant base for the stew.

Backstraps are the large muscles that run parallel along both sides of a deer's spine and rest on top of the ribcage, whereas the tenderloins are much smaller, and are located inside the abdominal cavity underneath the backstrap and the spine.