Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Best way to Tenderize???

I guess I don't know what a "tough cut" of meat is? I've never had one. I've only shot big game (deer/antelope) for the past four years, but I've never had a piece of meat I couldn't eat. The one exception is the first dish of deer meat I ever cooked: I didn't know much about cooking (previously divorced--either my wife cooked or we ate out) and I just fried a couple of venison round steaks in a skillet on the stove. It was tough to eat.
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<br>After that, I got a couple of cookbooks and went from there to several cookbooks and now I just follow the recipes and eveything I make is awful good...better than when I was married, even!
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<br>The only "tenderizing" I've done is pounding steaks with a meat hammer for chicken friend steaks, and that's only because the recipe says to do so.
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<br>What's a "tough" cut of meat? Justin

Depends on the meat! First of all it must be processed and aged properly. Whether deer, elk, or bull improper processing and ageing will cause the meat to toughen. When preparing to cook make sure that you don't cut it again until after the cooking is completed. This means that doing things like cutting a fresh steak off a swinging carcass and cooking it immediately will cause the meat to toughen. The muscle fiber and blood vessels will actually tighten when meat is cut. It must be allowed to relax before preparation. Next follow this rule: "if the meat is fat, cook it slowly over low heat; if lean; cook it quickly over high heat." Most of the marinades I saw above are excellent. Remember that they will also flavor the meat as well as tenderize it. Finally the selection of the cut should make your final determination as to what the cut is used for. Remember this; "if the cut comes from a muscle that did a lot of work (leg or hip) it will be tougher. Just like your muscles. That's why backstraps are so much more tender. Dont count on tenderizing a tough piece of meat and lusing it for a filet. Use the particular cut appropriately.