Reddit reviews Buck, Buck, Moose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things

Deer hunter, butcher, bbq'r here too.

I'd follow Hank Shaw's advice (Buck Buck Moose cookbook) for a roast - here is in short:

Rub the the roast with salt 30 minutes or so before you're going to cook it. I put these on a wood smoker and cook til the internal temp is 120, incidentally, keeping the temp in the 300-325 degree range.

Back to prep: use a sharp knife to put a bunch of little slits in the roast and insert a sliver of garlic. Wipe the entire roast well with oil.

If you're using an oven, do it at 325 degrees and, as with wood, cook til the internal is about 120. If you want a crust on it, pull it early from the oven, add some wine to the pan, increase the heat to 450, and cook til it's brown.

Regardless of how you cook it, if you let the internal go beyond 130-140 degrees the meat will be gray and tough. Venison should be eaten rare or medium rare.

And marinade? you can go for it although down here in Texas we rarely use more than salt and pepper so that you can really taste the meat.

And if you roast it in a pan, make sure to make a tasty pan sauce.

Sorry for the horrible recipe writing!! Get Hank's book - I've made several recipes from it and it's great.

Venison has such a long tradition in the U.S. that while it's beloved and widely hunted/eaten, it's surrounded by myth. Many of those myths have popped up in this post. Luckily, the top post from /u/TheMostlyOkayGatsby covered most of it, and accurately. There's a growing movement in today's connected world, with the increased focus on sustainable/organic/local foods, among chef/hunters and hunter/chefs to take a fresh look at wild game generally, and venison particularly.

First, dive in here: Honest Food Dot Net from Hank Shaw. Complete, science-based discussion of this exact topic. I can also highly recommend his book Buck, Buck Moose. It's not just recipes, but also food safety, handling, history, etc.

In the U.S., you can't legally buy wild game meat from your friend. They can give you some as a gift. This is due to the way our wildlife management works. At the turn of the last century, market/commercial hunters had almost wiped out North America's wild game species. Outlawing the practice has allowed them to recover to where they are today, where we can hold sustainable hunting seasons for personal use. There is some wild game farming (mostly elk) in the U.S. but it's the point source for all/most chronic wasting disease infections, which threaten wild game populations nationwide, so I don't recommend supporting the practice.

If you do get some meat from your friend, and I hope you do, ask some questions. What part of the country is it from? What kind of deer is it? (Whitetail, mule, elk?) What was its habitat like? (A farm-country corn-fed deer will taste different -- not necessarily better -- than a wilderness swamp-country deer.) What cuts are you getting? When/how was it processed? How was it frozen?

If you can't get this info, you'll have to wing it. If you unwrap and find clean, red/purple meat, cleanly cut and sweet smelling, you're in luck. Enjoy. If you unwrap it and find freezer burn, grey/dried edges/crust, crumbs of tallow, hair, and/or bone dust on the meat, that's a bad sign. Wash it well and hope for the best.

Assuming we're talking about North American whitetail/mule deer, and assuming proper handling and care before you get your hands on it, the following is true: There are no significant parasite or pathogen risks that you're not familiar with from handling beef, and wild venison can be safely eaten medium rare/rare/etc, just like beef. It does not need to be frozen first. Chronic Wasting Disease is a worth mentioning, but it's highly regional, and your state wildlife management agency will have advisories if it's a concern in your (hunting friend's) area.

Generally it's very lean meat, especially the "steak" and "chop" cuts. It's not marbled with interstitial fat in the same way that pork and beef are. Because of this it's extremely easy to overcook. You want very high heat to get a good crust/char on the outside while the inside stays nice and red. Maybe even a touch purple in the middle. Same if you're roasting a big chunk of loin. That's why sous vide is getting really popular with hunters -- it's easy to not overcook the meat. But it's doable in a skillet or on the grill with a little practice. I like to get mine finished on the outside (crust/char, kosher salt and butter/evoo coated) and pull from the heat with the center at about 110 degrees.

Regarding venison fat. There's a few types. On the outside of body, underneath the skin, is a thick layer of insulating fat called tallow. This is the stuff that folks hate. It's waxy and not-that-good-tasting and can coat your mouth in an unpleasant way. Hank Shaw writes that this is because its melting temperature is very high, higher than our mouth temp -- unlike beef and pork, which have fat that melts at our body temp, and therefore tastes great. Think chocolate bar: no good when cold, and taste amazing once it melts in your mouth. Same idea.

You can do two things about tallow. First, trim it off. As much as possible. Before freezing if at all possible. Second, if you're doing a braise or stew, skim the fat as much as possible as it cooks. Lastly, if you want to experience the true flavor without the gross mouthfeel, serve your steaks at super high temps and eat it while still crackling hot.

The other kind of fat is the "marbling" that you often see in beef and pork. This is not the same as tallow, and in fact generally does not taste bad. But you want to cook it low and slow. Think braise. This will be from the shanks and neck, especially, and these are my favorite venison cuts to cook right now. Steven Rinella's osso bucco is just astoundingly good with either shanks or neck.

If you only take one thing away from this post, remember this: Don't try to make it taste like beef. It's not beef. You wouldn't try to make pork taste like beef, right? You'll often see recipes that include wrapping in bacon, for example -- these are shortcuts for folks who don't care to learn why venison is different. Wild venison can be one of the best red meats you can eat, in all senses -- healthiest, lowest carbon footprint, most ethical, tastiest -- if you treat it like its own animal. Pun intended.

That said, any recipe that works for beef can work for venison. Just take into consideration the fat aspect. You'll need to add some (butter) or adjust cooking times and moisture accordingly. This can be tricky... hence using Hank Shaw's excellent cookbook linked above to help.

Good luck! Here's hoping you ask and your friend is a real friend and hands you 10 cleanly-frozen pounds of the best meat money can't buy.

I’d highly recommend checking out Honest-food.net for a variety of venison recipes. The author, Hank Shaw is my go-to for anything wild game. I own several of his books, including Buck Buck Moose which I highly recommend. It is all about everything antlered. Great info on butchering and breaking down a deer, and recipes for every part of a deer. Corned venison tongue sandwiches is one of my favorites.

This probably won't help you now, unless you get a digital copy, but check out the book "Buck, Buck, Moose" by Hank Shaw

https://www.amazon.com/Buck-Moose-Techniques-Antelope-Antlered/dp/099694480X

https://www.amazon.com/Buck-Moose-Techniques-Antelope-Antlered/dp/099694480X

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