Anne, those sound good to me. Thanks for the links. I have a book called "Homemade - How to Make Hundreds of Everyday Products You Would Otherwise Buy" (Reader's Digest). It has several condiments recipes, but none for 57 or A-1 sauce.

I like the taste of good venison. How it's cooked isn't as important to me as the handling before cooking, but I consider this to all be parts of the whole process. If the deer dies suddenly, without having time to be scared and doesn't run a mile before it dies, it will taste better.  If it's not a trophy buck during the rut, it will taste better. Quick field dressing and getting the body heat cooled down help a lot. Cutting the meat off the bone instead of cutting through the bones seems to make it less gamey.

I agree, Ken. A deer running on adrenaline makes the meat really strong. And a smaller deer is much better all around for the freezer. A big deer is only suitable for grinding into burger. We gut and prop open the cavity to start it cooling as soon as possible. Then hang it in the walk-in apple cooler (we live near several orchards) for a whole week before processing the meat. You will have a little bit of dry, jerky looking meat on just the surface of the exposed meat. That doesn't amount to much, just trim it off. Doing it this way makes the meat easier to cut up since it's colder and well drained and it improves the flavor, in my opinion.

Leila Rich wrote:Welcome to permies Mia
We have a different species of deer (red deer), but I assume using the tough cuts of any deer is about the same.
The big thing from my perspective is venison's extremely lean, and a bit of added fat makes a much improved stew.
If that's not your thing, it'll be fine, just a bit 'dryer'.
I don't have a recipe as such, but here's the kind of thing I'd do:

Quantities are completely dependent on how much meat you've got!
Dice carrots, onions and celery
Chop up bacon, fatty pork, pancetta...
Mix some flour, plenty of salt and pepper in a big bowl
Cut the stewing venison into good-sized chunks (say an inch across)
Chuck into the bowl and coat well
Heat up a heavy pan till quite hot, add some vegetable oil or fat and fry the venison in batches so it gets nice and brown.
Don't try and pack too much in at a time or it will 'stew'
Keep  adding the browned meat into a casserole dish, and browning more.
You'll need to keep adding fat.
When it's all done, add more oil to the pan (don't clean it, those meaty flavours are gold!)
fry the pork for a bit, then add veges and turn it down: you want them to caramelise, but slowly.
When they're golden, tip in a bit of red wine, if you like it, otherwise I'd add stock or water.
Scrape the goodies off the pan and tip it all into the casserole dish.
Add a couple of bayleaves, maybe some fresh thyme and a bit of tomato puree.
Cook it slowly for ages, stirring occasionally.
I'd do it in the oven, or even a slow-cooker to avoid burning it.
right at the end, I'd add some garlic, and maybe parsley and serve with mash

Excellent post Leila Rich.

I am trying to use up my older venison.

I made Alton Brown's breakfast sausage recipe using 1/2 Venison and 1/2 ground beef.  It was good but tough.  Next time I think I will use Karen's Patty recipe, instead of the steak sauce and  mustard, I will use Alton's spices.

While searching for recipes I found this one to try also:

http://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/editorial/venison-sausage-recipe/263022#

"With this recipe, I leave out the fat, which is the liquid/moisture content for the sausage. Instead, I replace the fat with the same liquid/moisture using vegetables instead. That way you keep the super healthy aspect of eating venison, and it tastes incredible."


   3 pounds of trimmed venison cut in cubes, almost frozen
   1 pound ground mixed vegetables (instructions below)
   1 cup non-fat dry milk powder, mixed with 2 ounces cold water and 3 tablespoons kosher salt
   2 tablespoons fine ground black pepper
   1 tablespoon ground white pepper
   2 tablespoons fennel seed, ground
   1 teaspoon star anise, ground
   3 tablespoons paprika
   2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
   3 tablespoons marjoram
   2 tablespoons ground bay leaves
   2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
   1 tablespoons mustard powder
   6 tablespoons fresh minced garlic
   1 tablespoon garlic powder
   1 tablespoon onion powder
   1 teaspoon ground ginger

   1 package hog sausage casings
   Grinder

1. Prepare ground vegetables. Start with 3-4 onions, red and green bell peppers, green onions, one head of celery, fresh parsley, fresh basil, and two bulbs fresh fennel. Mix all these and grind/purée to equal 1 pound. Run these vegetables through the grinder first (including the garlic) and then cook the mixture for 15 minutes on medium. If your venison is already ground, use a food processor to finely chop this vegetable mixture and then cook on medium for 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and place in the refrigerator to cool all the way down to below 40 degrees.

2. Cut and then grind all the venison, using the medium plate.

3. Mix all the other ingredients together except for the powdered milk and iced water, including the cooled down vegetables mix, into the ground venison.

4. Now mix the powdered milk and water together to form a paste and add this to the mixture and mix very well. If you have a stand mixer, use it with the paddle attachment.

5. Soak you sausage casings in water for at least 30 minutes before stuffing them. I like to run water through each strand of casing to get all the salt out of them.

Now the real fun begins, and you can make the decision to either put the sausage in casings or leave in bulk form. We do both to use in different recipes.

For Patties

For Patties, just bag up and freeze in 1- to 2-pound packages. I always use a Food Saver vacuum machine to freeze any proteins and especially wild game. I use this as a ground meat option for meat sauce or make large patties for a sausage Po-boy on French Bread.

For Links

Push one strand of casings up onto the stuffing pipe attachment on your grinder and start pushing the the sausage through to stuff the casing. Take your time and fill the casings almost all the way but careful not to tear it.

Drying

Once all the casings are stuffed, leave the sausages out to dry for at least one hour. If you can hang them in your refrigerator overnight then do so.

Now, either smoke them in a smoker or freeze them raw. When you do cook the sausages, cook in butter and onions for about 25 minutes on the stove or cook on the grill like you would your favorite smoked sausage.

That sounds really good. I think I'll try something similar to that soon.

I would probably make a third of a batch, thaw out a 1 pound pack of venison, add loads of the veggies I don't have fresh fennel and also since I don't have anise I would leave out too instead of buying it. I have only seen  recipes that just use bay leaves to flavor a dish and then they remove them. Interesting that this one uses ground bay leaves. I would use smoked paprika. (Love smoked paprika, would probably eat it by itself if nobody was watching.) And, I'd not use casings because that would be something I'd have to buy. But, all of the other ingredients are things I have already. I like your idea of sausage Po-boy on French Bread. That sounds good! I'm hungry!!

Something that I meant to mention:

I really like Alton Brown's technique for making sausage.  If I remember correctly, he uses meat that has not been ground and some how adds the spices while he grinding the meat.  All the meat I am trying to use up is already ground so someday if I can remember I want to try his method.

I always have trouble with his website though the recipe is on Food Network.

Marco Pierre White's Venison Tartare?
(clip starts with the actual stalking and shooting)

This is the time of year that I am looking to try new ways to use venison.  Here is a recipe for Venison Sausage Rolls:

1/2 pound ground venison
1/2 pound ground pork
2 eggs
3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
2 tablespoons freshly chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary leaves
1 red onion, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 sheets puff pastry dough (often sold in 17 or 18-ounce packages containing 2 (9 or 10-inch) square sheets of puff pastry)
2 eggs, beaten for egg wash


Directions

Make "sausage" mixture by mixing venison, pork, eggs, parsley, thyme, rosemary, onion, and salt and pepper, to taste. Saute sausage mixture over medium-high heat on the stovetop until browned, using a wooden spoon to keep the texture of the mixture "fine" (not chunky) while cooking. Drain the meat mixture well and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll out each puff pastry sheet and cut each of the 4 sheets into 4 squares, yielding 16 squares.

(These will be 4 1/2 or 5-inch square.) Spread the "sausage" mixture, over the surface of each of the 16 squares and roll up the dough "jelly roll" style (so the cross-section of the roll will be a spiral design), seal dough on the ends by crimping, and place on a baking sheet. Bake until golden brown, approximately 15 minutes.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robert-irvine/venison-sausage-rolls-recipe-1947440

Its that season again. We harvested our first deer. The 4 legs became 3 gallons of chili that i canned in quart jars. That should last the winter.  

Rib meat is being ground. We often use that with a curry sauce. I'd guess i got 5 pounds.

The backstrap is sliced and cooked on a skilllet.

Next deer will be sausage. Proprietary seasoning comes out of Belton, TX. Much better than the big stores. It's so diverse we even use it with spaghetti.

Bow season started today. Too busy right now to participate. Only harvesting older bucks this year. Didn't see enough young deer this spring so we decided early to help them repopulate. Plenty of deer, we just want more. Going to focus mostly on bagging ducks & geese this year.

"With this recipe, I leave out the fat, which is the liquid/moisture content for the sausage. Instead, I replace the fat with the same liquid/moisture using vegetables instead. That way you keep the super healthy aspect of eating venison, and it tastes incredible."

Will be mucho sausage soon. That recipe idea sounds excellent!!!

Our Favorite way to make elk or deer steak.   Thaw and lightly pound flat .  Soak in Italian salad dressing for several hours and grill on the barbecue.  Take peppers, onions and mushrooms and skewer and cook on grill at the same time brushing them with the same Italian dressing.   Hmm GOOD