One of my favorite ways to cook them is seared in a pan with a bourbon cream sauce. There are several methods for cooking a good backstrap and-at the risk of offending folks-none of them involve wrapping it in bacon. Then I package them into two chunks per package for family grilling. I usually cut each whole strap into three pieces, which leaves me six pieces. To control that a little better, I leave my backstraps in large chunks. Those little chops cook so fast they often end up overcooked. A lot of folks I know like to cut the straps into chops and grill them, but this often doesn’t work for me. Easily grilled or fried in a pan, backstrap lends itself to quick and simple preparations. I think it is safe to say this is most people’s favorite part of the deer. Pan-seared venison backstrap recipe with a bourbon cream sauce. If you overcook ground venison in a burger or meatballs, it dries out terribly and produces an off-putting grainy texture. If you are going to make burgers, you need to add fat to the meat you grind, mix in some ground beef to the venison patties, or cook your burger medium-rare. Just remember that venison doesn’t have the fat content that domestic animals have. I’ve used it in all varieties of dishes, from lasagna to pot stickers. Pretty much anything you could cook with ground beef, pork, or lamb will accommodate a venison substitute, including an endless amount of fresh and smoked sausages. Although I think a lot of people get stuck in a culinary box when it comes to ground venison, it’s actually one of the most versatile things to have in your freezer. I like to make all my own sausages, and my wife really likes plenty of ground venison to cook with instead of ground beef. On really big deer you can get some nice blade steaks off the front shoulders, but I usually just grind everything on the front legs. The front shoulders are the source for most of my ground venison. How to Make Venison Sausageĭebone the front shoulders and grind them up for killer venison sausage. There’s good amount of connective tissue in the neck, and slowly cooking it for several hours will result in one of the best pot-roast-style cuts on the animal. If and when you do master the art of de-boning a neck roast, you’re in for a treat. Ideally, everyone should give it a try on each deer they shoot, if only to practice and hone their knife skills.Įven if you mess it up the first few times, you can still grind all the meat so none of it goes to waste. Or you could do what most people do, and cut as much away from the bone as possible and grind it all up. You could also make a bone-in neck roast. It is possible, with a lot of practice to de-bone the neck and make a beautiful neck roast. Cook a Venison Neck Roast A venison neck roast and wild rice. We’ll start with the neck and then work our way down the deer. There are also some useful guidelines below on how to cook venison-regardless of individual preferences-that will hopefully keep folks from attempting to grill shanks or stew backstrap.

This is by no means the only way to butcher and cook your cuts, but this is how I get the best results when using the whole deer. Which means this cut-by-cut guide is going to be tailored to my culinary tastes, and how I break down my deer. The answer to that question depends not only on the cut, but also your cooking abilities and dish preferences. One of the most frequent questions hunters ask me is how to cook venison, cut by cut.

Top left to right: Shank, femur, and scraps for grinding. The cuts are, from bottom left to right: Bottom round, eye of round, top round, and the sirloin.

Loin of venison