Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Tough venison

it seems that the buck i shot this year is very tough. i steaked out the roasts and they are chewy as hell. they taste fine and not at all gamey, just tough. i think i will be doing chicken fried steak and probably some sort of swiss steak but other than that i am kind of out of ideas.

any thoughts on how to prepare or cook a tough old buck?

Use a tenderizing hammer on it and it should be great.I'm just starting to get into ageing my deer meat and it does make a huge difference.I put the quarters,backstraps and tenderloins,ribs and neck meat each in a separate bag,not closed off,just to keep the meat from being directly on the ice.I use large ice chest with a good layer of crushed or block ice on the bottom,the bagged meat spread out on top of the ice and then another good layer of crushed or block ice on top of that.I prop up one end,keep the drain open and replenish the ice on top daily.I use plastic bottles filled with water then frozen to be used for my daily icing.Just put them back in the freezer and replace them with another set that is frozen.It will make your ice last a long time.The meat your going to grind really doesn't need to be aged,so I worked that up rather quickly and put it in the freezer,but I like to hold the backstraps and hindquarters at least 7 days.The longest I've held it was 13 days.I have found it to make a tremendous difference in how tender the meat is.The main thing is keep it iced down really well at all times.

Crock pot is your friend !

Cube it & make stews.

+1 on the tenderizing hammer.

You may want to look up using "baking soda".

Supposed to work on beef.

Saw it on one of those Saturday cooking shows in the past.
They included a technical explanation of why it worked.
The one with Julia and Bridgett.

Yes tenderizing hammer cut them thick then beat them out thin. It will tenderize them.

Uhh....you are trying to turn roasts into steaks.....and complaining about the toughness?


Yeah. They gonna be tougher than chops.

Cook medium rare or less. I find that many game roasts are much more tender than comparable roasts in domestic animals, but if you get a tough one, you may be chewing.

Low and slow probably best.

Sometimes high acid marinades help.

You could also defrost and leave in a cold fridge for 2-3 weeks. Wet aging will definitely tenderize most meats.

https://anovaculinary.com/what-is-sous-vide/

Seriously - look it up

Planning on a batch of this soon: West Texas Venison

Deer are pepperoni \sausage \ kielbasa fodder. Backstraps, the whole 9 yards.. Elk is steaks etc.

If you're going to hammer the meat, you ought to just grind it into burger. If you want steaks, use a jaccard.

JACCARD

Aging cures almost all evils...

Can it or grind it.

i realize that. i have done this a lot. i'm not big on deer roasts. this is the toughest deer i remember eating. i expect some roasts to be less tough than others due to the muscle group they came from. for some reason this is all tough.

Ninja Foodi (pressure cooker) will get the job done! Just got one a few weeks ago, works great and will definitely tenderize that venison!

I believe the concensus is...

😂😂😂

I guess the remedy would be to cube them then.

The only parts of a deer I cook with dry heat are the back straps and tenderloins. I cut steaks from the roasts from the hams but I cube those ( used to beat them with cubing mallet ). I either do country fried steaks or country style steak from those.

Soak it in salt water for a couple of days. Works like a charm on duck, as well.

caning only way to go any cut is tender.

ya i think thats where i'm heading. good thing i like chicken fried steak. gonna be eating it a lot. its also easy to make which is good.

i have yet to try the backstraps from this one. hopefully those will be good. i save those for when the asparagus and morels are up and for teryaki on the campfire in summer.

any ideas on breading? i usually do an flour, egg, flour or flour, egg, breadcrumbs on the pounded steak.

Wife likes to take Club crackers and run em through a food processor forn the breading.

Seasoned with season salt.

i was just thinking something like that. but it would require a trip to covid mart. i think i may try smashed up saltines.

just did the chicken fried deal. beaten severely, flour, egg, cracker crumb/panko combo. fried in peanut oil and then made peppery cream gravy and smashed tators and GB's. friggen awesome. never had better. me, wife and two boys ate 12 steaks. not a hint of gaminess and perfect texture.

The solutions suggested so far all work.

You could also buy a copy of TENDERIZE THE WILD (www.riflesandrecipes.com) which explains why they work, and suggests a wider variety of solutions.

I like half whole wheat flour and half corn flour.Season meat,flour,dip in egg and milk whipped,then back in flour.Fried with about 1/4" of oil in a cast iron skillet.Don't turn until the batter starts browning.Just watch the edges and you can see it.

In reference to another thread, is poached venison tougher or more tender than that taken legally?

This is why I’ve owned a hobart tenderizer for 25 years. Damn thing will tenderize shoe leather. Hand crank tenderizers don’t do near as good a job either.

I have an old Hobart too.I paid $60 for it,money well spent.

Meat hammer, marinate in buttermilk and chicken fry it. It that doesn't make it tinder run it through the grinder and make chilli.

ya i took the hammer to it. looks like me and the fambly will be eating a lot of chicken fried venison in the coming months. not that its a bad thing.

Hard to do better than chicken fry venison.

This. The Ninja pressure cooker would do the same thing.

Try Swiss steak the slow cooking should do the trick. Smothered steak with onions and mushrooms gravy is good too. Less greasy than frying.

I've been using this for years. I have never had a tough piece of venison since.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A3G0F6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

BP...

Good to hear.