Venison backstrap recipes

Now that we have a backstrap, how shall I cook it?

Sure, cutting it into medallions and wrapping them with bacon is always wonderful.  Put those babies on the grill... Yum, yum.

I could cook it in the pressure cooker, adding potatoes & carrots for the last 10 minutes is another good old standby.

I could cook it in the dutch oven.  I'd have to build a fire first to do it really old style.

Here's a few recipes from Wide Open Spaces

Another good source for recipes & meat (should you be an urban dweller or non-hunter) can be found at Broken Arrow Ranch.

Pinterest is also a good resource for recipe ideas.  I have a board for Fresh Yummy Food.  There's also  Cooking Tonight.

Butchering a deer

Our neighbor, Jennifer, loves to hunt.  Bow hunting, muzzle loader, or with a modern rifle.  She is part of the River View Farms hunting club, which adjoins our property to the south and west.

She arrived yesterday afternoon and went out to sit in her tree stand soon after arriving.  She  sent me a text at 5:30.  She'd gotten a deer, and would be back at her cabin after dark.  I offered to help her butcher the deer.

Growing up in NE Pennsylvania, the men in our family all went deer hunting.  I was never involve in the butchering.  I remember loving to eat venison, but I don't recall how my mom cooked it...

Our first winter together, John went hunting with his brother Jim.  They both got a deer.  The meat was divided among all the family.  I cooked our portion, but didn't participate in the butchering.

Once we got settled in here, John helped Jennifer butcher a deer.  I learned how to butcher along with her.  It's not difficult work, just messy. The deer we butchered last night took us about 30 minutes...

Our favorite cut, of course, is the back strap.  Any venison is good venison, in my opinion.  Steaks, roasts, stew... We've made deer sausage links in the past.  Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!  Check out my previous post on dutch oven  cooking.

I strongly believe that any animal you kill should be eaten.  Trophy hunting is just wasting good meat!  Rabbit, squirrel, quail, duck, turkey, venison - we've eaten them all.  Waste not, want not is our motto.  Arkansas has a program, Hunters feeding the hungry, the uses donated deer to provided ground meat to local food banks.  They have a website & a Facebook page.  Check them out.

Arkansas hunters feeding the hungry

Lunch on a cold clear day

So today, I decided to make some casserole in the crock pot.  What did I want to make???

I started looking in the freezer and here's what I found.

Tater tots

Venison

 

 
I also got out these....



And what do you  get???



DINNER!!!


Seriously, we love eating a nice hearty casserole on a day like today.  It's cold outside.  We don't want to fuss much...  We just want to eat well.