First attempt at cooking venison

johnkitchens

My just turned 15 year old son killed a 130 pound doe this year. Every year he gets at least one deer, and I have it processed and give the meat to my parents. I haven't had venison since I was a kid and had no desire to eat it again. 

This year my son was fine giving most of the meat away, but he insisted the we get the back straps and loins. I froze them and hoped he would forget about them. He didn't. I gave in and cooked them on Saturday. 

I did some research on this forum and others, and I talked to a lot of hunters on the best way to cook them. I think I got a different answer from almost everyone I talked to. "Soak it in regular milk", "soak it in buttermilk", "don't soak it in milk". It went on forever. The one thing most people said was to wrap it in bacon. 

I finally just decided to do it may way and the success or failure would rest with me. My son was very excited about all of this, and I wanted to do a good job for him. I thawed the meat and cut the back strap into two pieces. I removed the silver skin, rubbed in olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, wrapped it in apple bacon and coated it in Red Eye Express. I used toothpicks and did the best I could to get the bacon to stay in place. I cooked it all direct at around 350. Because it was direct I had to turn it often. I pulled it at around 145. It still looked pretty rare to me. My wife wouldn't try it, but she was nice enough to slice it for us. 

My son was ready. My 12 year old daughter seemed pretty eager to try it as well. Both of them are picky eaters. My daughter loves steak, but hates hamburgers and hot dogs. Anyway I told my son that it might be an "epic fail" and that I was sorry if I had ruined it. 

I was nervous as the children took their first bite.......they loved it!!!!!!! I was so happy. Dad was a hero!!!!!!  They ate all they had on their plate and begged for more!  I told one of my buddies at work about it today. He takes my son hunting a lot and has a freezer full of venison, but he said he no longer grills it because he didn't like it grilled. He said it always come out tough and dry. I told him what my kids thought about it, and he asked for a sample. I went home and brought him back a plate and told him to be honest. He took one bite and he loved it as well. 

He wants me to cook some for him now. "It is so tender and juicy" were his comments. I gave all of the credit to my Egg. 

Anyway I felt pretty good about the outcome of the cook. I didn't get an after picture, but here is a before. 

buzd504

That sounds amazing.  I love venison, particularly the backstrap.

minniemoh

Congrats on the successful venison cook. You just can't beat making the kids happy. 

johnkitchens

Thanks guys! 

dldawes1

@JOHNKITCHENS I have a couple of neightbors/friends who have tasted some of my eggcellent food and they want to bring me deer meat to smoke for them.

I am new and have only had my egg for about 3 weeks and have only cooked about 5 times because of work schedules.

I'm a little paranoid about cooking someone else's meat, but I guess I'll give it a try very soon.

You have boosted my confidence,

Thanks,

 

Donnie

RickyBobby

@johnkitchens ~ that's pretty much how I do my venison on the Egg. I get great results! I think pulling it at the correct time and wrapping in bacon is what makes it soooooo good.

shadowcaster

Yea it is ALL about how you cook it. Your friend at work who said it was tough and dry probably over cooked it. Venison has to be be served rare to med rare. Any more than that then it is dry and tough. I will take the inner loins or backstraps over a steak any day. We hardly ever buy meat anymore, we put venison in everything and my 2 yr old son loves it as well (hhaha thats my boy!)

Griffin

Nicely done, Sir! Love venison and I thin kthe key is pulling at the right temp. 135 is good for me. So jealous. I didn't have nay deer walk in front of my gun this year that were legal to shoot. Can't take doe in our county this year. :(

johnkitchens

Thanks guys. I was happy with the result and so far everyone that has tried it loved it. I have another pack in the freezer. I will be trying it again very soon. 

WeberWho

Thats awesome! Great job on the cook.

laserdoc85

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1159650/first-steaks-on-egg#latest

I have been doing deer on the egg since 1985. I used to wrap it in bacon but no more. I have cooked more deer and other stuff than I can remember on the egg. Have gone through 3 of them with the current one being g 14 years old. If you cook your back strap just like the link above you will love it. From now on this is the way my back straps and steaks get cooked. Use a thermapen and pull you back straps at about 115 to 120. Take my word this is the ticket. Only reason to soak in milk is if the deer ran . I have always shot mine in the neck and they go no where. Taught my son to do the same. He has never had run more than two steps

johnkitchens

Thanks WeberWho? and laserdoc85. 

I will consider that method next time. This deer didn't run. He has never had one run either. He also shoots them in the neck. 

He goes dog hunting with father in law and those have been run to death. I want them standing still before they go down.