Wild Game Stuffed Venison Recipe

 

It's that time of year again; deer hunters are getting themselves geared up to make their trek out into the woods in hope of bringing home some venison. At one time in my life, I too was one of the die hard deer hunters, but have seemed to have lost the desire to take part of what was such a ritual for me. I can remember several times sitting out in the rain opening day, and not leaving my blind for anything.

I suppose there are various reasons why I don't go deer hunting anymore, but that does not mean that I don't enjoy cooking and eating one of Michigan's most popular game animals. Although I can't say I've tasted true venison taken from the Michigan woodlands for awhile, what I usually get to work with at the restaurant is farm raised venison which unfortunately lacks the "gamey taste" that some of us true deer hunters look forward to. But the farm raised and the wild venison both have the same texture and the low fat content to the meat.

Those traits in the meat make for some special cooking and roasting requirements. Either the meat is cooked to med-rare to medium quickly, or it is cooked to med-well to well done slowly. I can remember what seemed to be my mom's favorite way to prepare venison, which seemed to be quite often since my dad almost always bagged his buck. She would dredge thin cut steaks of venison in seasoned flour, sauté them in oil till done, and then toss in a bottle of beer and let it simmer till the venison was tender.

Our Executive Chef says that taste buds remember, and he is right. I can remember that taste, almost to the point of smelling the aromas of the venison and beer filling the house with the smells. Sorry, I getting carried away here and actually making myself hungry. Back to what I'm supposed to be doing here, instead of daydreaming.

A recipe... I don't have any venison in any of the freezers at Zehnders, so I improvised and used boneless porkloin instead. Both the textures and fat contents are about the same, so both basically have the same cooking procedures. Only the taste and color are different, and well.. the cost too. This recipe is one that we have done in the Café several times using boneless porkloin, but will also work with a piece of venison that has been cut into a roast weighing approximately three - four pounds.

In the following pictures I will show a technique called "roll cutting". At first it is fairly tricky, but after practice, it becomes quite easy. And in all actuality, it doesn't matter if you do it perfect, because the finished product is rolled and the stuffing kind of covers any mistakes.

For the first step, lay the roast out onto a cutting board. Cut into the meat to within ½" of the bottom and spread the sides apart slightly.

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