Adventures in Cooking

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Claire

Master Chef
Joined
Sep 4, 2004
Messages
7,967
Location
Galena, IL
When I first moved to Illinois, about 5 years ago, I discovered a place that sells game birds of all types. I quickly learned why turkeys and duck were domesticated. The only bird that was a sucess was the pheasant, but I'm not sure if the bird is better or if I finally figured out that you have to lard the darned things. My first wild turkey was a total disaster -- I've bought more tender chewing gum. I do have to say that the carcases made for some absolutly brilliant stocks. Now friends are giving me tons of venison because I love it so. The one thing people cannot get used to is that you have to add fat to wild game, or it will turn to rubber.
 
Heh, I had one **** of an adventure last winter with a frozen venison loin.

I'd never tried cooking wild game before, but I'm the resident foodie among the the roommates. So when one of the girls started stuffing the one freezer between the four of us with vacuum-packed venison from her uncle, it was up to yours truly to dispose of the biggest (and therefore hardest to store) chunks.

The pack was labelled innocuously with "LOIN" written across the front with a Sharpie. The inner contents were as dark a red as I've seen, and the structure of the meat impossible to identify thru the... blood?... it was packed in.

Figuring it was either chops or a whole boneless loin, I'd planned on grilling it with some butter and garlic. Two days in the fridge, it's all thawed and ready to open.

Uh oh.

Clearly I'd made two mistakes in my planning.

1. Apparently someone likes stuffing venison chops.
2. A venison loin isn't that big around.

Yeah, chops cut for stuffing, and almost small enough around to fall thru the grill onto the coals.

This isn't gonna work.

Okay, okay... What's a default? Tender cut of meat, large surface area for volume, so high heat. But can't grill it.

Aha! The wok!

I don't know if anyone else on this side of the planet has tried stir frying venison. A quick pantry raid turned up water chestnuts and red bell peppers. Garlic, sesame oil, fresh ginger, soy sauce and some cheap red cabernet built up the sauce along with the juices. Somehow, with the white & wild rice my roomie had made, it actually turned into a pretty good meal.

The rule stands, I guess. When in doubt, fry. :)
 
As a kid we hunted and ate game all the time. It was out of necessity and I have not hunted or had access to game in years but here is what I remeber.

Game is really lean. When we made deer sausage we added beef fat to it. Also deer, usually served 2 ways tough or hard was best use in stews browned first for flavor or jerked. Turkeys, grouse and phesant was stuffed to retain moisture and or covered in foil while cooking. That is what I remember.

Brining a wild turkey would be the way I would go now, or any game bird besides maybe a duck.
 
My son just marinated some antilope steaks, after a day he grilled the steaks and they
came out like fried liver, I really enjoyed the sanwich he made for me and the 4 pups
could`nt get enoughn of it. But I really enjoyed it.
 

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