Great Venison Cooking

‘Cooking’ recipes

Smoked meat is so delicious! We love smoking venison. The only problem is we don’t have a smoker (that’s next years’ cooking purchase). No worries though. It turns out the gas grill works just fine for smoking.

Here’s how you do it: you need a gas grill with two or more individually controlled burners and you need a temperature gauge mounted in the lid…preferably marked in degrees. If your grill doesn’t have one, pick one up at any store that sells grill parts; it’s important that you know what the temperature inside the grill is. Ideally, your grill will be able to maintain a constant temperature of 225°. (Ours doesn’t so we have to watch the meat carefully.)

Turn on the left or back burner and heat the grill to 225°. Place hickory chips or other smoking wood in a bread pan and cover with water. Place the pan over the heated burner.

The key to smoking is indirect heat, so once the grill starts smoking, put the meat on the burner that is off. Smoke until meat is cooked through. Sausages take about 1 hour, a 2-lb roast takes about 3 hours. Use your meat thermometer to monitor the internal temperature.

We smoked a roast for Easter lunch, and it was heavenly! Rick made a sandwich and I made a salad.

Last night was the end of my French Cooking series at Cookology, a great recreational cooking school in Dulles Town Center. It was so much fun and I’m sad that it’s over. Why did I take a French cooking class when I cook so much venison? Because French cooking is a great foundation for everything. We learned the basics for sauces, soups, meat, salads, and other yummies. I learned how to hold a knife and how to chop vegetables (yes, I’ve done it wrong most of my life). I picked up lots of other tips too that are already making my home cooked meals better. It’s great. Now I need to apply these tips to my venison cooking. Right after I examine the schedule for the next class to take.

I’m getting ready to head into the kitchen and start experimenting. I was watching an old episode of “After Hours” the other day, and the chef prepared a nut and bacon encrusted venison saddle. It looked amazing. And it looked like something I could simulate.

So, Rick just so happened to get a deer and preserve the saddle for me (the backstrap area with bone in). I’ve got a selection of raw pumpkin seeds, macadamia nuts, and sunflower seeds for the nut crust, some excellent bacon, and plenty of oil. We’ll see how it goes.

I love experimenting like this. Sometimes I think I should go to cooking school and do this professionally!

If you’ve been reading this blog, you may have noticed an exchange I’ve been been having with Sharon. Turns out Sharon cans a lot of food, and has convinced me that it is very easy to do and the meat is great.

I’ve never canned anything, and I’ve never had canned venison. But I’m game! I can see where it would be very handy, and I definitely have several recipes that would work well with canned meat. So, as soon as I get my hands on the right equipment, I’m going to give it a try.

I’ll be following Sharon’s guidance. She has a wonderful web site dedicated to canning, called SimplyCanning.com. Give it a visit if you have a hankering to can some of your meat.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we’re almost out of venison. I can actually see the bottom of the freezer. I’m feeling a little panicked about this, although I know it’s just a matter of days before the freezer is full again. After all, Rick got 20 deer last year. 20. That’s a lot of meat. We probably gave half of it away. I’m sure he’ll do the same this year and soon my freezer will be full. I hope so…I have a lot of recipes to test!

Okay, so Wahoo isn’t venison, but 1) a friend caught one while fishing for Marlin and 2) saying Wahoo is fun, and eating it is funner!

I had actually never heard of Wahoo before, but it is quite a delicacy. Since they’re solitary swimmers, they’re kind of hard to catch. Our fisherman friend told us people usually catch them by accident. But then they keep them because they are GOOD! Think fresh halibut…it’s the same kind of mild steak. He was very gracious to give us four huge steaks.

I found a Wahoo recipe on e-zine articles. It was delicious! This would work with halibut, cod, or any mild deep sea fish.

Wahoo for Wahoo with Cuumber Salad
4 Wahoo steaks
2 tbs olive oil
juice of 2 lemons
juice of 2 limes
1.5 tbs paprika
1.5 tsp crushed red pepper

Trim the skin and dark red area at the top of the bone (I’m sure it has a name, but I don’t know what it is…but it can taste gamey). Mix the oil, juices and spices together. Pour over fish and let marinate for 1/2 hour. Grill fish at medium heat…time depends one how big and thick the steaks are. Ours took about 5 minutes per side.

Serve with cucumber salad, which compliments the hot of the paprika.

Cucumber salad
2 cucumbers
1 tomato
2 tbs red wine vinegar
2 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

peel cucumbers and slice thinly. Cut tomato in half and slice thinly. Put both in bowl and mix with oil, vinegar and spice. Let marinade for at least 2 hours before serving.

Welcome to the Hunting Widow’s Guide to Great Venison Cooking, where you’ll find venison recipes (venison burgers, venison roasts, and more). You’ll also find venison cooking tips, and articles and videos on preparing meat (field dressing, skinning, and quartering the deer). Why did I start this vension recipe site? Because my husband is a hunter, and a very good one at that. As a result, I always have about 100 pounds of venison in the freezer—no matter how much I cook, the meat just keeps reappearing. After eating about 50 gallons of chili one year, I realized I had a choice to make—I could keep making the same dishes over and over, or I could really learn how to cook venison and experiment with gourmet recipes. So my quest started. I love looking for interesting recipes and testing them with venison. This web site is the product of that research. Bon Appetite!

I can’t believe my last recipe was March 1. Wow, it’s amazing how quickly cooking takes a back seat when my life gets busy. Busy life is, though, and I’m not sure when I’m going to have a chance to try something new. But I will. In the meantime, if I have time, I’ll find some recipes that I know will work with venison and post them.

If you have a great recipe, please share it!

In the last 2 months I’ve pretty much eaten anything that has come within 10 feet of my mouth. As a result, I’ve gained a few pounds. I came to my breaking point Friday night when I had to unbutton my fat jeans. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

This morning, Rick and I stumbled upon Calorie Count while trying to find out how venison compares to other meats in terms of nutritional value (it’s significantly better, by the way). I’ve been having fun logging my food and activity. I have high hopes that this tool will help me get this crazy eating under control.

Have fun if you choose to use this. When it makes sense, I’ll use it to calculate nutritional information for the recipes I post.

Happy New Year!