Cook up the tastiest cut of the deer in the tastiest way with one of these crowd-pleasing venison tenderloin recipes.
By Celby Richoux |
Though deer meat can be butchered and cooked in countless venison recipes, many hunters look forward most to their first dish using tenderloin. By definition, tenderloin is one of the most tender cuts of deer meats, and offers arguably the best flavor of any venison.Venison tenderloin recipes are also especially popular during the holiday season—which coincidentally falls right after you harvest your first deer of the year.
Wild game meat is one of the greatest parts of being an outdoors enthusiast, and cooking venison dishes using seasonal produce such as pomegranates, pears, and apples to serve to your family is a no-brainer. But the perfect venison recipe varies with each household, which is why we've offered six venison tenderloin recipes to choose from. Whether it's someone's first time trying deer meat or their umteenth venison meal, these options are sure to delight.
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Slow Cooker Apple Venison Tenderloin
Wide Open Spaces
While slow cooking may take longer before you can eat, the total time actively working on the dish is much shorter. This option is a little savory and sweet, thanks to the onions and apples.
Slice your tenderloin into medallions on a cutting board and sear them in a cast iron skillet or pan with olive oil or butter until the outsides are crispy. Place them into the slow cooker with a little bit of beef broth. Quarter your apples, slice your onions, and toss them in, too. In about six hours, you'll have a delightful fall meal.
Wrapping wild game meat in bacon seems to be a common occurrence, but for good reason: The cured pork's saltiness beautifully complements the tenderloin's earthiness.
This rich recipe, which includes a divine garlic cream sauce, was written for axis deer tenderloin, but it will be just as tasty made with meat from a whitetail.
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Venison Tenderloin with Blackberry Sauce
Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide
Venison is often pegged as being gamey. But this delicious yet simple recipe from Rufus' Food and Spirits Guide enhances the tenderloin's subtle game notes with a sauce made of tangy blackberries, widely regarded as a wonderful pairing fruit for red meats.
Let the meat sit for six hours in the refrigerator soaking in the marinade of dry red wine, Dijon mustard, and black pepper before browning it in a skillet with butter and olive oil over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. Let the meat rest under tin foil while you make the blackberry sauce, then drizzle and enjoy.
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Venison Medallions with Whiskey, Mushroom, and Horseradish Cream Sauce
This recipe from Food for Hunters had us at "venison" and "whiskey," but the hearty, flavorful cream sauce really sets this dish off. One of the greatest benefits of cream-based mushroom sauces is your ability to experiment with various fungi, though we're partial to crimini mushrooms, which give any dish an extra punch of earthy flavor.
Rinse and dry your venison with a paper towel, then season with salt and pepper before getting into the other ingredients. Grill until medium-rare, using a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature. This recipe can also be made with a venison backstrap.
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Belgian Venison Medallions
Hank Shaw
Hank Shaw's take on an age-old recipe calls on the unique flavor of juniper, which is known to pair especially well with wild game, plus a little fresh rosemary, gin, shallot, and pomegranate seeds to balance it out.
While this recipe doesn't mention accompanying sides, we highly recommend roasted fingerling potatoes with a splash of olive oil and a healthy dose of sea salt. Serve with the venison medallions garnished with pomegranate seeds.
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Maple-Juniper Venison Loin with Chocolate-Infused Red Wine Jus, and Leek and Potato Mash
Eat Live Travel Write
Chocolate and meat? We know you think we're crazy, but listen up—this pairing could change your life. This culinary masterpiece from Eat Live Travel Write is sure to please the most elevated of palates as well as any meat-and-potatoes good ol' boys. It relies heavily on the rich, velvety red wine and chocolate jus, but gets further depth from the addition of juniper berries in the venison marinade. Serve over the mashed leaks and potatoes.
READ MORE: No Freezer Space? How to Can Venison to Preserve It Instead
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Large cuts of venison taste best when pot-roasted for several hours. If you have access to a crock pot, use any recipe for beef pot roast and you'll be pleasantly surprised. However, instead of cooking for two to four hours, venison may require substantially longer cooking time for the meat to become tender.
Slow and low is the secret. Anything past medium rare will automatically make them tougher to chew due to the lean nature of venison. One trick that many claim to help is to soak the meat in milk for 30 minutes before cooking. Personally I don't feel it helps much but others swear by it.
You can cook the tender, steaky cuts of venison to the same doneness levels as you would beef, namely 130–135°F (54–57°C) for medium rare and 135–145°F (57–63°C) for medium. Hitting those temperatures just right is important for maximum enjoyment. Luckily, we have a great method for it.
For steaks, chops, and other thinner cuts, mechanical tenderizers are generally the best option. This includes crank or push-style cubers that use fine blades to sever the muscles into smaller lengths.
Here are a few tips and guidelines on how to cook deer meat:
Marinate the meat: To tenderize the meat and add flavor, marinate it in a mixture of acidic ingredients, such as vinegar or citrus juice, and herbs and spices. ...
Cook low and slow: Venison is lean meat, which means it can dry out easily i.
"Freshly butchered venison — especially when it is in rigor mortis — will be super tough," Cihelka said. When rigor mortis sets in, the animal stiffens. Hanging the animal prevents the muscles along the spine from shortening. This is why backstraps and tenderloin are tender.
Like any meat , Deer meat to is tenderized by beating it, by marinating it with mild acids like lemon juice, sour curd, buttermilk, vinegar etc for minimum 4 hours . The fibers need to be cut across if you cut along the fibers the meat will be tough and chewy.
Backstraps are the large muscles that run parallel along both sides of a deer's spine and rest on top of the ribcage, whereas the tenderloins are much smaller, and are located inside the abdominal cavity underneath the backstrap and the spine.
Soaking: The most common soaking liquids are buttermilk, saltwater, white milk, vinegar, lemon juice and lime juice. While some hunters swear by certain soaking methods to take the “gamey” flavor away or bleed the meat after processing, others don't find it all that helpful.
Cola's high acidity and caramel flavor makes a surprisingly good meat tenderizer. Cola typically has a pH of about 2.7—for comparison, lemon juice has a pH of 2—making it acidic enough to break down some proteins without dissolving your meat.
Our Favorites. Our Top Pick: Williams Sonoma Reversible Meat Tenderizer. Best Budget: OXO Good Grips Die Cast Meat Tenderizer. Best Mallet Style: Rosle Meat Hammer.
Like any meat , Deer meat to is tenderized by beating it, by marinating it with mild acids like lemon juice, sour curd, buttermilk, vinegar etc for minimum 4 hours . The fibers need to be cut across if you cut along the fibers the meat will be tough and chewy.
The longer cooking time and the low heat complement each other perfectly. As a result, even though the meat is cooked for far longer, it doesn't dry out because the temperature is low. As a result, this is the best way to retain all the natural juices of the meat.
Both factors are influenced by the cut of meat you choose and how long the meat is cooked. The more a muscle is used, the stronger, and therefore tougher, the cut of meat will be. And the longer meat is cooked, the more liquid it loses and the tougher it becomes.
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