The Boy Cooks Deer for His Parents
Venison in wine sauce
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My mom instilled in me the primary importance of eavesdropping. One, it gives the listener insight to people that deepens her understanding into human nature and, two, it helps to develop a true perspective on the environment where she might currently be and perhaps doesn’t know anything about. A way to appreciate humanity’s current condition. A way to acclimate oneself to the surroundings.
If she hadn’t taught me this, I would have never caught on to one of the weirdest aspects of the Wild About Game event I wrote about on Tuesday. Here I was, in a rustic hotel near Mt. Hood, Oregon about 44 miles down the road from Portland, and surrounded by a pack of manic food people—chefs, purveyors, and everyday citizens—at a gathering billed as a celebration of all woodland game. The predominant overheard talk concerned how relieved they all were that the different meat offerings didn’t taste “gamey” at all. As a non-hunting city dweller, I came in thinking that a slightly high gamey flavor to deer, elk, bear, what have you, meat was the whole point of cooking them. Apparently, from the viewpoint of the people in the room whose business relied on widening the market for game meat, it caused a considerable amount of unease.
I turned for enlightenment to Ed, Sr., father of the young teenager Ed, Jr., with whom I was hanging out (you really have to read Tuesday’s story). He stretched back in his chair and smiled at Laura, his wife, who grew up in Oregon raising rabbits and lambs as a sideline to her family’s orchard farming.
“Well, people like the idea of wild game, but they don’t want that wild taste—it’s too weird for them,” he explained. “The stuff being pushed here isn’t really wild in the sense that the animals are raised consistently—well fed and looked after. But the truth is, the only reason game that you hunt tastes wild is because people don’t know how to properly field dress the animals. Or they’re too busy with the hunt—they don’t pay attention or aren’t quick enough—and the meat starts rotting. Or if you take a male during the mating season. Testosterone and hormones will make the meat high and wild.”
Field dress deer as soon as possible to ensure rapid loss of body heat, prevent surface bacteria from growing, and maintain overall quality of the meat.—Penn State Extension “Deer Pocket Guide” pamphlet
I would have never known all this if I hadn’t stood around with head cocked at an angle to snoop into other people’s conversations, and I wouldn’t be able to pass this little bit of knowledge on to you. (Thank you, Mom!) You can also rest assured that the game meat most available to you, which, by the way, can be very good for you, will not assault your taste buds.
Now here is a family recipe that Laura taught Ed, Jr. He told me he cooked it for his parents the day after he shot a deer in the woods and carried it back to his family’s house.
Venison in wine sauce
2 venison haunch steaks
2 tablespoons neutral oil
For the sauce:
1/2 medium-size onion, minced
Half leek, chopped into chunks
2 cloves of garlic, smashed, then chopped
leaves from a large sprig of fresh thyme (I would add rosemary, too)
2 cups full-bodied red wine (Laura also recommended using port)
2 tablespoons apple jelly (Ed, Jr. said his mom’s was the best)
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 tablespoon flour
Remove the venison steaks from the refrigerator an hour or two before you’re ready to cook them. Brush over them 1 tablespoon of the oil and reserve the rest for the sauce. Cover the meat while you make the sauce.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the onion and leek over a low flame, stirring often to prevent them from burning, for around 10 minutes or until they start to caramelize.
Add the garlic and thyme and gently stir them into the onion mixture. Cook for another minute or two until very fragrant.
Add the wine and bring to a boil, then lower the flame to a simmer. Cook until it reduces by half. Watch it carefully so it won’t be too reduced.
Add the apple jelly and stir until the jelly melts into the wine sauce. Remove from heat and cover it to keep it warm while you cook the steaks.
Heat a cast iron skillet to very hot, almost smoking, then place the steaks in the skillet. Cook about 15 seconds, then flip to the other side. Repeat every 15 seconds for about 3 to 5 minutes or until the meat has cooked to your liking. Remove to a plate to let rest.
Mix the softened butter with the flour, pressing them together until they form a paste.
Pour the wine sauce into the skillet and stir, scraping up any burnt crisps of meat left behind. Bring the sauce to a low simmer. Add the butter-flour mixture and stir until it melts. This will thicken the sauce.
Return the meat to the skillet and quickly turn to coat both sides.
Remove meat to a serving plate and pour the remaining sauce over all.
Goes well with roasted potatoes.
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