Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Birthday Backstrap

My wife's birthday was March 30th and my nephew's was the 27th. My nephew requests a backstrap meal on every birthday. He's 15 now and been contributing to the meal for a few years. 'Fire member lastround provided the elk from a successful KY elk hunt. Elk on the left, deer on the right......

The nephew and deer that secured this meal...

The KY cow on the grill from lastround...


Time to turn the meat!

very nice

The kid knows good food...

Looks great. Bet it was good.

Yes it was!

man those bacon wraps sure are tastey,,,

I like 'em. Without question, my favorite meal on the grill.

Congrats to the wife, the hunters, and the nephew that knows his food!

Fine friends, fine food. It don't get any finerer.

Coincidentally, we grilled venison backstraps today. Great stuff! My son-in-law is a picky eater but he raves about those.

would you tell use what seasoning, if any, you put on the meat?

Sometimes I use a salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder mix I throw together. Sometimes I use Spicecraft Prime Steak and Beef Burger seasoning. Depends on the mood, but plain old salt and pepper is hard to beat!

YUM!

Well, since your post came after mine, and you didn't mention any other name, I assume you were addressing this question to me. Great question!

Seasoning is everything. My method for preparing bacon-wrapped backstraps is as follows:

1- Cut venison backstraps ONCE so they fit on the grill and can be turned.
2- Rinse meat under cold running water to remove excess blood and any loose stuff like leaves and hair that made it into the package.
3- Place meat into pan with sides. I use a 9x12? cake pan.
4- Sprinkle on seasoned meat tenderizer, black pepper, and a little garlic powder. GO EASY ON THE GARLIC POWDER as it is very strong and can overpower. Use meat tenderizer instead of salt and use more than you would on thin steaks. If you follow these instructions it will soak into the meat and season through-and-through.
5- Turn meat over and repeat the seasonings.
6- Sprinkle a little white vinegar over all the pieces, like about 1 Tbsp per pound. You don't want the meat to taste like vinegar, but you do want to lower the pH to aid in tenderizing.
7- Add cold tap water (or beer) just enough to bring the level up toward the top of the meat.
8- Grasp a piece of meat with both hands (fingertips) and push-pull back and forth like an accordian while the meat is in the liquid. This will mix the ingredients and cause it to soak up into the meat like a sponge. I call this "force marinating." Repeat this step for each piece of meat.
9- Place pan with meat in fridge for 3-4 hours. About mid-time take it out and repeat the force marinating turning it over in the marinade several times, then replace in fridge.
10- After meat has marinated for 3-4 hours, remove pan from fridge. Place strips of bacon on board (or shallow pan to catch juices). Lay backstraps across bacon. Bring ends of bacon up and over to wrap backstraps. Secure bacon to backstraps with a round toothpick on both sides of each strap. When finished, each strap should be fully wrapped with toothpicks sticking out both sides. Use two toothpicks per bacon strip. If you don't, the bacon will fall off the ends of the straps when you try to turn them on the grill.
11- Prepare a fire of charcoal to cover bottom of grill for even heat. Before putting straps on the grill, close the lid for a few minutes with the vents open to reduce the heat to prevent scorching the bacon before the venison is cooked.
12- Place straps on the grill. Leave a little space between straps so you can get ahold of them with tongs to turn them mid-way through cooking. Close grill cover with the vents open. You might want to arm yourself because the aroma of the cooking straps will draw in cats, dogs, and neighbors.
13- Cook on one side for about 20 minutes. Turn them over before the bacon scorches. Cook on other side for about 15 minutes. These times are approximate based on my experience. Cook to desired doneness. Cut into straps between toothpicks to check doneness. I prefer rare to medium rare as this is the height of tenderness. More cooking makes the meat tougher and drier.
14- Remove from grill when done. Remmove toothpicks and cut straps between bacon wraps into serving size pieces. Serve immediately. It doesn't matter what you serve as side dishes because nobody will notice them anyway.

If you cook the meat just to rare or medium rare, it will be very juicy and absolutely melt in your mouth.

Please try this and let me know how it works out for you. Thanks.

sounds absolutely delicious. gonna try it this weekend when the kids and grandkids visit.

thanks

Even people that don't like venison will rave about these. Give the GKs a kiss on the cheek for me.