Fresh Deer Meat

My husband's good friend is a champ at the hunting video game/bar pastime Big Buck Hunter. Little did I know he actually hunts deer AND recently bagged a big buck. The deal was if we went to pick up the meat at the deer dressing place in rural New York (he was stuck working on the West Coast), we could keep half! A culinary adventure+drive in the country+excuse to shop at the outlet mall? I was in!


So...it was a little "Green Acres." Desertos deer cutting is housed on a residential street in an unassuming building barely larger than a double-wide trailer We were greeted with the "Drop Deer Here" sign pictured above which answered the first of my many questions about the mysterious hunting and dressing process. Inside, a group of friendly Deserto ladies divvying up a Sara Lee apple pie greeted us while two silent burly men looked on. I believe if I looked close, I would have seen a fair amount of blood on their clothing. So goes the butchering of large game. Anyway. They were expecting us and thrilled that we had made it all the way from the city. We quickly received our box of packaged, frozen meat from deer #148, paid out $95 and were on our way. The classifications of meat were: Chopped, Tenderloin, Loin, Cutlet and Stew.



With very little (no) experience cooking venision, my husband and I set to researching and decided to marinate and grill pieces of the loin. All it took was a simple marinade of salt, pepper, olive oil, cider vinegar, garlic and worcester sauce (for about 8 hours) and a very quick sear to yield incredibly flavorful, tender meat. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised since it was incredibly fresh, but this venison was some of the best tasting meat I've eaten in recent memory.


So, I urge you to get out of your comfort zone and try some game yourselves. Next up, venison chili! Thank you, Big Buck Hunter....and, of course, The Big Buck!