Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation that football shaped venison roast ???

Young deer ( 5 pt 2 1/2 years old maybe 3 1/2 )
From the hind 1/4 . whole muscle , be thawed by tomorrow am .
Looking for cooking tips.
Should I cook it whole or cut it up ?
Marinade ?
Slow cook or high heat ?
Slice when just done or wait and eat like a fall apart long cooked pot roast ?
Best temp range for done ?
Any tips and ideas welcome.

Really could use some help here.
Been longer than I care to admit since I filled a deer tag and want
need some help here.

I would brown it, season it and then put it in a dutch oven. Cook it slow until it is fall apart tender. Maybe an hour at 350 and then turn down to 225 for a couple hours.

Depends on if you like your venison well-done or on the rare side. For well-done, browning it then moist cooking in a Dutch oven or crock-pot is the way to go.

If you like it on the rare side, just put it in the oven in an open roasting pan at 350 or so, and check it with a meat thermometer after an hour to see where it's at. It will probably need to go a little longer at that point. Generally, with most themometers 120 is RARE, 130 is medium rare, 140 pink.

We cooked a similar mule deer roast the other day, and wanted it medium-rare. It was 110 degrees after an hour, and another 15 minutes brought it up to 130. But that is only a guideline; the specific oven and roast will determine overall cooking time.

Thanks for the replies
For me just rolling it around a hot pan till rare + is perfect.
The better half though, is a little skittish of venison still ( she loves bear , but shy about deer ) .
Sounds like the brown and slow cook is a good plan.

Brown it, then throw in some beef broth and a pack of onion soup mix, an onion and 5-6 crushed cloves of garlic, maybe some mushrooms if you like them. Let that go in a covered pot in a 325 oven for 4 hours. Throw in your veggies, whatever your pleasure, and let it cook for another hour and a half or two and you should be good to go. Another option is to substitute cream of mushroom soup for the onion soup mix, preferably some good brand from the health food store as opposed to the crappy campbell's stuff.

M1894,

Yeah, I used to have a mother-in-law (first wife) who was convinced that deer meat had trichinosis, so cooked the living hell out of it all the time.

But my seond wife's mother doesn't eat game meat, and we have been somehow been able to survive without catching a case of cooties while cooking the tender cuts (like the one you descibe) pink to rare for, oh, over a quarter of a century.

But if well-done is the only acceptable technique, slow and moist is the way to go.

JB,
What roasts off the hind are appropriate for your rare/medium rare treatment? I'm thinking that if the football works then the big flat one on the lateral side would work also? Sorry, I'm not schooled in meat lingo so don't know the proper names, but I do know how to eat 'em. (grin) This could open up a whole new world for me as cooking roasts for hours and hours is my least favorite way to eat venison.

Whip, I'm not JB...he has the good sense to still be sleeping...
And I'm not up on the "cuts" lingo either, but I can assure you the big flat one makes a wonderful roast, done Medium rare, and then cut into steaks...one of my faves!

Ingwe

Whip,

The general rule on any 4-legged meat animal is that the tenderest meat is higher and further back: the rump, the back end of the backstraps, the filets underneath the spine. Any of those are eligible for dry-roasting--though on a deer the filets are usually a little small for that.

What you really need is a copy of my wife's latest game cookbook, SLICE OF THE WILD, that explains all the details about this. www.riflesandrecipes.com

I put the "football" shaped roast in my cast iron dutch oven along with a porketta and 1 small can of beef broth. Cook em long and slow until they shread easily. At this time the meat will soak up the broth. Put it on hard rolls and if you want use some horseradish sauce or your favorite bbq. Although you won't need either.

Long

That book sounds very helpful . I just ordered it , my Christmas gift to myself

I went along these lines , added a bit of apple cider to the liquid .
The wife LOVED it !!!! I felt bad about the slow moist cooking of a nice cut of meat , but seeing my wife actually go back for seconds made it all worth while
She won't be so hesitant next time I tell her Venison is for dinner !!

Thanks for the help , saved my bacon you guys did !

M1894..you will REALLY like Eileens book!!!

Ingwe

WOW !!!!!
Just got the book today . A quick skim thru and I really do love it !!!
Even had a post- it note to point me to my OP question included
Highly recommended . Shot to table it really is all in there.

Thank You MD and Eileen

M1894-- I just did the football roast in a crock pot- Been doing slow roast for years--- Try 1/2 apple cider and 1/2 ginger ale for your liquid. Add a couple packages of dry brown gravy mix- After searing the roast in garlic ,rosemary, salt ,pepper, butter and olive oil. place in crock pot with liquid, add onion, carrots, and taters. Cook on high for about 5 hrs. - remove all the liquid, place in sauce pan bring to boil adding flour to thicken gravy. Place everything back into crock pot and on low cook for another hour or two. Enjoy.--- Try Cranberry juice also. Web

M1894-- All good info from Whip-Longwinters- Elkhunter76-- slow cooking until venison is very tender and moist. Each has different liquids and spices to cook with but they come out good. In camp this year I did this roast for 12 hours in front of the fireplace. I used ginger ale and about a half a bottle of oyster flavored sauce on top of the roast before I covered it. One would never guess that ginger ale was used.-- I even used cola-- Web