From: ut-emx!shawn@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Shawn Boyd)
Newsgroups: rec.hunting
Subject: Re: Recipe for venison and a joke.
Date: 28 Aug 92 16:26:20 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu


In article <1992Aug25.070206.11592@doug.cae.wisc.edu> X005CB@tamvm1.tamu.edu (Chris Barnes) writes:
>In article <1992Aug21.084616.7411@doug.cae.wisc.edu>
>   eric@ms.uky.edu (Eric H. Herrin II) writes:
> 
>>Hey guys,
>>
>>With bow hunting season quickly approaching, I thought I'd do a poll of
>>people's favorite venison recipes.  

 [--deletions...]

>My wife made up this recipe for venison roasts 

 [--more deletions... of a very good sounding recipe.  Will try.]

 This one's long, but I'm big on this method of preparing a venison roast.

 Here's one I posted last year.  It works pretty durn good... especially on 
 deer with even less fat on them than those Northern leviathins.  Down here 
 in Texas, our Whitetails generally look like big skinny dogs unless they're 
 fed corn and salt licks, and have a good constant water source (often as not
 man made here in Texas).  Ready, here are the ingredients for the...

 Roast:

 5 - 10 lbs. of venison suitable for a roast (backstrap really does work best)
 5 - 8 oz. of powdered chipotle or liquid chipotle salsa (a particular kind of 
       chile) if unavailable, substitute an x-alarm chile powder of your choice 
       (where x generally runs from 1 to 5 indicating your tolerance for 
       capsaicin, otherwise known as phenolic amide, the major active 
       ingredient in that beloved genus of tropical herbs, the Capsicum -- the
       mighty and wondrous chili pepper!)  BTW, if you can get Chipotle, use 
       it in preference to anything else -- works great on venison.
 ? - ? some unspecified amount of garlic powder and or onion powder -- usually
       about a half a teaspoon of garlic (maybe a bit more) and a tablespoon or 
       so of onion powder.
 2 - 4 cloves of elephant garlic cut into spears

 Marinade:

 1 - 2 medium to large red onions
 1 - 2 oranges
 1 - 2 apples  
 3 - 5 limes and/or lemons (preferably both in mixed quantities)
 1/2 qt. apple juice 
 1/2 qt. orange juice
 1/2 cup apple vinegar
 1/4 - 1/2 cup Worcestchire [spelling?  I hate that word] sauce 
 1 - 2 tbsp. tobasco sauce
 1/4 - 1 cup sherry or port or otherwise dry red wine (this is optional)

 Optional ingredients:

 Other vegetables -- pearl onions(?) chives (?) tomatoes (?)
 Any other fruits you might care to try, and in whatever quantities.
 1 - 2 lbs. strip bacon (EXTREMELY optional)

 Some people play musical instruments by ear without the need for sheet music.
 I cook by ear, and while I'll use a good recipe, I rarely (if ever) even 
 attempt to follow it step by step.  This recipe is particularly biased in the 
 direction of that style of cooking.  This drives some people nuts.  Sorry.
 On this one, you're cooking by ear.  I'll try to be as specific as possible on 
 instructions, but feel free to be creative.  I'll throw in some hints in the
 instruction section.

 This recipe works by tenderizing the venison without the use of fats in the 
 cooking process, and avoids the use of mechanical tenderizing -- like a hammer
 or turning your venison into sausage (a sort of combination of both the above
 methods).  Instead it uses that age old idea of a marinade.  So, first of all,
 make your...

 Marinade:

 In a large, fairly deep, bowl or long pyrex dish, mix the apple and orange 
 juice, the juice from the lemons and limes and any other juices you might care
 to try (for instance, I've never tried cranberry juice... sounds like it might
 be pretty good).  Go ahead and put in the Worcestchire [that word again] and  
 tobasco sauces as well as the vinegar.  Section the fruits (add any you think 
 look like they might work -- maybe a pear, some pineapple?) but don't section
 them up too fine.  Go ahead and leave the rinds and peels on.  Don't worry 
 about the seeds either.  They'll come out in the wash.  Toss those in the bowl.
 Next dice the onions up fine.  You should get a large, heaping, stinky, double
 handful.  If not, your onions were too small.  Get more.  Toss 'em in.  Go a-
 head and toss in the lemon and lime rinds too.  By now, I'd just about be done,
 but if the muse of gastronomy has touched you, feel free to continue with any
 other ingredients.  One I have not tried, but have been tempted to try, is to 
 substitute the vinegar pickling base used to pickle canned jalapenos for some
 (if not all) of the apple vinegar.  AyEEEEEE!  By gawd, I bet that'd liven it 
 up, doancha know.  A friend once suggested V8.  Sounds good.  Think I'll try it
 next time.  

 Once you're done, you should have a rather foul looking brownish-orange bowl
 full of liquid with some now-ruined-for-any-other-purpose chuncks of Fruit 
 floating on or near the surface.  If it's not fairly disgusting in appearance,
 you probably didn't add enough Worcestchire.  Add some more.  If it smells 
 even vaguely potable (especially as some kind of fruit drink) definately add 
 some more onions, some onion powder might also be in order.   Hey, this is a 
 game meat marinade, not an ice cream social punch. 

 OK.  Is it nice and nasty looking?   MMMMM,mmmmmm,MMMMMMMM...  Cover and let 
 sit at room temperature for a couple of weeks.  Ha!  Just kidding -- a couple 
 of hours will do.  The point is, you don't want to start this marinade chilled.
 
 Time to do...

 The Venison:

 Take the vension, backstraps really do work best for this, and plop it in.
 Cover and let stand at room temperature for... oh, I guess an hour or so.  Long
 enough to let the marinade get soaked in without being too chilled.  At this
 point, for the sake of sanitary reasons, not to mention, the serenity of those 
 passing through your kitchen, refrigerate the marinade, overnight.  Now that 
 is not a joke.  When I say "overnight" I mean 8 to 12 hours or more.  You can
 go 16 (I have, but I don't think it helps and more could be bad) but 12 really 
 is plenty, and 8'll do in a pinch.  No less than 8 though.  Really.  Otherwise
 this won't work.

 Next day, or that evening, pull out your venison marinade.  It should look just
 awful.  Really bad.  So, unobserved by guests or other diners, lay out a large
 sheet of foil.  On this, sprinkle your garlic and onion powder (you can also 
 use other spices or seasonings, Lawry's Season salt is one example, or Liptons
 instant onion soup mix is another -- neither are recommended for low sodium 
 diets) and the most important ingredient of all, your chipotle chile powder
 or your x-alarm chile powder.  I do not consider chile powder optional.  You
 may, and I'll respect that, unless I'm cooking, then it goes in anyway.  I 
 will, occasionally try to be thoughtful, and leave some of the roast aside to 
 be spared this treatment.

 Important divergence; if you don't have powdered chipotle, but do have the 
 easier to find liquid chipotle sauce, use the chipotle sauce, AND some chile 
 powder too.  Just rub with the chipotle sauce, or use it in the marinade.
 Haven't tried it, but it sounds good.

 Take the garlic spears, about one per every 1 to 2 square inches and poke 'em
 down into the roast.  While the roast is still wet from the marinade, roll it
 in the garlic/onion/chile powder.  At this point, if you're not on a low fat 
 diet, take the slices of bacon, and wrap the roast from tip to tip.  I don't 
 really like the effect this has on beef (say, filet minon) but on venison with
 this marinade, it's ungodly.  Wrap the whole shootin' match in foil.  Now it's
 time to...

 Cook:

 2 to 3 inches above a flat bed of coals on a medium hot, (preferably closed)
 fire for a couple of hours while you drink beer and BS with a bud, until done 
 (both yourselves and the roast) or...

 Cook:

 in a medium to low hot oven (300 to 375 degrees) while you drink beer, and 
 joke around with your friends, until done (ditto)... 

 In both cases the process takes about 1 to 3 hours depending on how hot you 
 make the oven.  The longer and slower you cook it, the tenderererer it will 
 be, and the more time you have to sit and chat... and drink beer.  Save some 
 marinade for occasional basting -- you'll want to check the roast from time 
 to time for done-ness, while your having a beer.  Kind of a pain peeling back 
 the foil and putting it back on, but worth it, especially when you've gotta 
 nice cold beer in your hand.

 This goes well with various dishes: I have tried it and liked it with, corn, 
 potatoes (of any kind, except chips), asparagus, brocolli, wild rice, beans 
 (lima and red) and once Rice-a-Roni (that cheesey brocoli-ish kind) and Kraft 
 Macaroni and Cheese, of all things.  It was brought by a friend of mine as a 
 single dish (yes, all mixed together) to a party as a joke.  She can't cook, 
 and is really quite proud of the fact -- can't say as I blame 'er.  Cooking
 can be a pain.  She hunts, by the way.  Her husband usually does the cooking.
 To her dismay, everyone took LOTS of the stuff, proclaiming it "excellent! oh,
 delicious!"  She  would actually chase people with a big wooden spoon raised 
 to strike whenever one of us would extoll her virtues as a cook, although the 
 stuff she had concocted really was quite good.  It went great with this ven-
 ison recipe. 

 The spectacle of her bonking people at the serving table with that big wooden 
 spoon (some quite fiercely, she's an archer, and has a strong right arm) got 
 me very tickled.  I got bonked twice before I convinced her I was being 
 sincere when I told her it was good.  It's hard to look sincere when you're 
 laughing your butt off, especially with a big Rice-a-Broca-Loni-Cheese spooge 
 on your forehead from that first swat you took.  Fortunately, we had lotsa 
 napkins.

 Last appearance of this recipe was last Thanksgiving, when a bunch of us all 
 found ourselves away from family for various reasons.  We just all got 
 together, and potlucked it.  The meat dishes included turkey and smoked 
 turkey, honey-baked ham, cornish game hens and the above mentioned venison.  
 No one else present had had venison before, but most had heard stories about 
 gaminess and chewey toughness, which certainly can happen very easily with 
 venison.  The marinade takes care of both those things.  The venison was the 
 first to go.

 Note that you can make all of this with essentially no fat (exclude the bacon)
 and very little salt -- except for what's in that darn Worcestchire [!?!] 
 sauce.   
 
>Someone asked me for an Aggie hunting joke, so here it is  (ps.
>Shawn should get a chuckle outta this too....)

 Uh oh, you really shouldn't get me started ya know...  ;^)

> 
>Two tea-sips (someone that attends Univer. of Texas) were out deer
>hunting and were lucky enough to bag a rather nice buck.  After
>field dressing the animal, they each
>grab a back leg and proceed to drag it back to the truck.  A game
>warden, who happened to be wearing an Aggie class ring, approaches
>the 2 tea-sips, and after checking the tag on the deer says:
>   "Ya, know.  If you boys would grab this deer by the horns, it'ld
                                                        ^^^^^
 Aha! gotca now, you ole aggie, you.--------------------^^^^^

>    shore drag alot easier"
>The tea-sips think for a minute, then agree to give it a try.
>After about an hour of dragging, one tea-sip turns to the other one
>and says:
>   "Ya know, that 'ole Aggie wasn't that smart after all.  We're
>    gettin' further from the truck all the time......"
> 
>ta dum da.
> Chris Barnes 

 Great joke, Chris... by the way the marinade above will probably even 
 tenderize the hooves and antlers... or should I say "horns" when I'm 
 in college station (oops, and I forgot to capitalize)... heh heh.  Just 
 kidding.  ;^)

 All kidding aside, Chris... your recipe sounded great.  I'll surely try it.  

 How 'bout some more, gang?  

 You can actually sway the opinion of a neutral/non-hunter to understand more 
 about hunting by sharing a meal you harvested yourself with them.  Anybody 
 got a good recipe for venison chile... and by the way; I really could use a 
 good Javelina recipe.  I've found that they're kinda like eating a smokey 
 rubber band when you just barbecue 'em.  :-)

 Shawn