December 18th, 2009 Putting Up-Venison Tenderloins
‘Tis the season…for venison.
For those who think venison is icky or gamy, it’s probably because:
A. It’s meat from an old buck in the middle of the rut (you know, the ones with the big trophy-sized rack on their head), or
B. It wasn’t field dressed properly, or
C. It wasn’t cooked properly.
In our opinion, venison is some of the finest meat available. Not only does it taste good – it’s good for you. More protein and lower in calories than beef or chicken, and contains iron and vitamins. What’s not to love?
If you’ve never tried venison, a good cut to begin with is the tenderloins or backstrap. Here’s how we put up venison tenderloins.
This is a whole, trimmed tenderloin. These are found on either side of the spine (there are two of these per deer). As this muscle doesn’t get used very much, it’s very tender. They do have a tissue layer called silverskin over them, which must be trimmed off just like a beef tenderloin.
You can leave the tenderloins whole or in “roast size” pieces, but we prefer to cut them into “mignons”.
Cut into slices about 1-1/4″ thick or the height of a strip of bacon.
Wrap each mignon with a strip of bacon. Venison is very lean meat, and the bacon provides some fat and also holds the mignons in shape when cooking.
Do use a good quality bacon. It doesn’t necessarily have to be thick cut, but some of the cheaper brands tend to shred as you wrap them. We happen to like Boar’s Head brand. You’ll probably need one 1 pound package of bacon per tenderloin.
Secure the bacon with a toothpick – I use sandwich picks. Push the pick all the way through and nip off the pointy end. If you have some small irregular pieces (usually from the tapered end of the tenderloin), just roll them up with a smaller piece of mignon. The bacon wrapping and the pick will hold them together.
You’ll have two flat ends just barely sticking out of the roll. This prevents any sharp points from poking through the wrapping in the freezer.
Wrap each mignon in plastic wrap. For the two of us, we put three mignons into one bag and vacuum seal.
Like so. We got 37 mignons from our deer.
In the next post, we’ll describe how we cook these delicious morsels.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
You mention “Field Dressing” but you do not go into it and this is the most important part of the hunt! This affects taste to be certain and you must no omit it! You cannot eat improperly “Dressed” meats – they taste “Wild” to “Sickening” Article is incomplete and even without reference to good hunting pages that elaborate on “Dressing ” the meat, and clean safe hunting practices! Get back to your keyboards and tell the whole damn story, all-together so kitchen and forest cultures meet at the dining table!
January 18th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
You’re right – I didn’t explain field dressing, etc. I felt there are many good, easily accessible resources on the Internet, so why re-invent the wheel?
Thanks for your comment.