Venison pie | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

What herbs go with venison? ›

For the venison loin:

Use a neutral oil such as rapeseed oil for searing at high temperatures. Once the meat is nicely coloured, add the butter to the pan with the rosemary, thyme and garlic. When the butter has melted baste the loins continually for 6 minutes before removing from the pan. Rest the meat for 5 minutes.

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.

When people describe venison taste and texture, they often use words like rich or earthy; this is a festive-tasting meat, often imbued with hints of the acorns, sage and herbs that the deer enjoyed during its life.

Step into any restaurant featuring a la chasse-themed menu, and you can expect to find classic pairings such as venison with cranberries, apples, celeriac, butternut squash, brussels sprouts or Belgium endive.

Particularly for medium-rare doneness, venison needs to achieve an internal temperature of 145°F before removing from the heat, whereas ground venison must be cooked at 160°F. Additionally, a casserole dish made from venison including leftover meats must be reheated to 165°F .

Areas for working muscles include the shoulder and leg muscles. Working cuts of venison must be cooked for a relatively long time at a low temperature (220° to 325° F) to allow the connective tissue to breakdown. Once this happens you will get a fork-tender, flavor packed piece of meat.

1. Don't overcook it. The number one mistake people make when preparing venison is that they overcook it, rendering the meat rubbery and gamey.

Why is my venison steak tough? ›

Because of this very important distinction between other types of meat (beef, pork, etc) that tend to be more “fatty”, venison is very easy to overcook. Overcooking any meat, especially meat that has little fat content will ultimately dry it out, making the meat tough and harder to chew.

Incorporating fat into venison is key to mimicking beef. This can be achieved by wrapping the venison in bacon or barding it with beef fat before cooking. Alternatively, cooking venison in beef stock or adding a bit of beef fat during the cooking process can also impart a richness closer to that of beef.

Small tender legs can be kept whole and roasted like a leg of lamb. The meat can also be cubed for stew or ground into hamburger. The loin and rib chops are the source of sirloin and porterhouse steaks. These cuts are generally best for frying, broiling, roasting, or grilling.

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.