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corned venison
- Thread starter George
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AZbpBurner
54 Cal.
No
AZbpBurner
54 Cal.
But I've had corned antelope & elk brisket. Both were outstanding, as venison should also be.
Black Hand
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I've cured venison with salt and a little sugar. It is similar but not the same as modern corning....
Corning should yield tender meat and could also "mask" the flavor of the "wild tasting" venison.
If there is a gamey, wild taste to venison, I wouldn't eat it....somewhere down the line it was improperly cared for.
My experience w/ venison and elk is that these 2 meats don't need any "help" to be delicious...brisket of beef needs the corning flavor and tenderizing.
Very early on 68 yrs ago, we "aged" venison and it was barely edible....that "wild taste" was caused by aging.
We became enlightened from my uncle in northern Minnesota who "lived" on venison w/ his family of 7. My aunt served the best venison on this earth and it was always properly cared for and wasn't aged at all. Her venison was sautéed w/ onions and a little garlic which also produced a delicious gravy for the potatoes.
Got off on a tangent, but properly cared for venison should be a tasty feast w/o a whole lot of "help".....Fred
If there is a gamey, wild taste to venison, I wouldn't eat it....somewhere down the line it was improperly cared for.
My experience w/ venison and elk is that these 2 meats don't need any "help" to be delicious...brisket of beef needs the corning flavor and tenderizing.
Very early on 68 yrs ago, we "aged" venison and it was barely edible....that "wild taste" was caused by aging.
We became enlightened from my uncle in northern Minnesota who "lived" on venison w/ his family of 7. My aunt served the best venison on this earth and it was always properly cared for and wasn't aged at all. Her venison was sautéed w/ onions and a little garlic which also produced a delicious gravy for the potatoes.
Got off on a tangent, but properly cared for venison should be a tasty feast w/o a whole lot of "help".....Fred
Black Hand
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My personal experience indicates something different. The gamey taste can be caused by improper cooling, treatment or trimming. The fat from venison or elk will contribute to gamey flavor and needs to be removed. Aging will tenderize the meat - I've aged up to 2-3 weeks and the results were mild, flavorful and tender venison/elk. This is something I've done with each whitetail I've harvested over the last 20 years and I've never had a gamey animal. The only gamey venison I've had was given to me - it was a Mule Deer buck in the rut that had been wounded and run until dispatched. It was funky...flehto said:
Well marbled beef can be aged but seeing venison doesn't have marbling, one would think that it can't be aged. Anyways that's what I've read when I looked into the matter.
Also...when beef is aged, it's under tightly controlled temp and humidity. Hanging a deer in the garage doesn't satisfy that standard.
As I said....when first starting to deer hunt we hung it in the garage for 2-3 weeks and the trimming wasted a lot of meat. One thing that did happen was a big reduction in weight due to moisture loss.....besides tasting kinda "funny".
No...when I want aged meat, I'll buy an aged porterhouse......Fred
Also...when beef is aged, it's under tightly controlled temp and humidity. Hanging a deer in the garage doesn't satisfy that standard.
As I said....when first starting to deer hunt we hung it in the garage for 2-3 weeks and the trimming wasted a lot of meat. One thing that did happen was a big reduction in weight due to moisture loss.....besides tasting kinda "funny".
No...when I want aged meat, I'll buy an aged porterhouse......Fred
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Aging has very little to do with fat content and more to do with tenderizing meat by the action of endogenous enzymes. It also intensifies the taste of the meat by the loss of water.flehto said:
Temperature should be in the low 30's - easily achieved and maintained for weeks/months in MT during hunting season.
I leave the skin on while aging, and it minimizes the amount of meat that needs to be trimmed. As much fat as possible is removed when cutting.
I'm not discounting your experiences at all, but my personal experience indicates other than what you have described.
Black Hand
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It's a nasty one - and contagious too...
The old-fashioned corned meat appears to have been meat cured in salt. The term "corned" came from the appearance of the salt - large granules that resembled corn (an Old English catch-all term for grain).
The old-fashioned corned meat appears to have been meat cured in salt. The term "corned" came from the appearance of the salt - large granules that resembled corn (an Old English catch-all term for grain).
Black Hand
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As best as I can determine, other things are added (to the salt) such as spices and nitrites/nitrates.
Black Hand
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Also, in many/most cases, a brine is used instead of granular salt to make items like bacon, salt pork and corned beef.
If you were to hang the best grass fed beef on a game pole behind the tent for a week and then dragged it home and aged it in the garage for 2 weeks before skinning I'll bet it would taste pretty bad. That's what I did with my deer in the old days and never had a good one. Later years gutted, skinned on the spot and butchered before it got stiff. Much much better. Deer now killed on my brothers farm is hung,skinned and butchered within 30 min. without gutting. Very good, never gamy.
Major Dorman
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Here's what I do, it has the same flavor as store bought corned beef brisket.
http://www.outdoorlife.com/forums/hunting/ez-corned-venison
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Brokennock
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I have not done the process myself 1st hand. But, my friend at the farm where we process a lot of venison for local hunters corns the hearts. Awesome. This and and his venison pastrami are my two favorite processed venison products.
I fully agree w/ your post. In Wisconsin and Minnesota the temps during and after deer season are freezing and after the deer is field dressed and hung, w/in 24 hrs the meat is well on its way to being fully frozen.
2 days before butchering, the deer is brought into the basement for thawing. After skinning, sometimes the hind quarters are still partially frozen but this aids in cutting the meat. The cutup meat is then put in the frezzer.
Always have "fresh smelling" meat....not meat w/ a "funny" smell. But...to each his/her own way of processing deer.
Brought some well trimmed sausage meat to a processing butcher shop {when that cut up deer, they have to close down the shop...state law} and on the concrete floor were approx., 2 dozen field dressed deer. The bad smell in the room was partly rotting meat, partly ammonia from the urine and some must have been gutshot and not cleaned thoroughly.
Anyways, the butcher weighed my meat and simply gave me a weight ticket w/o asking my name and writing it on the box. I asked how come and he said that I wouldn't be getting sausage that was made from my meat.... they process 100s of lbs of venison at one time including that from all those smelly deer. Grabbed my box and left.
The reason for the above paragraph is that it relates evidence of how poorly venison is treated by many hunters. ....both during field dressing and afterwards......Fred
2 days before butchering, the deer is brought into the basement for thawing. After skinning, sometimes the hind quarters are still partially frozen but this aids in cutting the meat. The cutup meat is then put in the frezzer.
Always have "fresh smelling" meat....not meat w/ a "funny" smell. But...to each his/her own way of processing deer.
Brought some well trimmed sausage meat to a processing butcher shop {when that cut up deer, they have to close down the shop...state law} and on the concrete floor were approx., 2 dozen field dressed deer. The bad smell in the room was partly rotting meat, partly ammonia from the urine and some must have been gutshot and not cleaned thoroughly.
Anyways, the butcher weighed my meat and simply gave me a weight ticket w/o asking my name and writing it on the box. I asked how come and he said that I wouldn't be getting sausage that was made from my meat.... they process 100s of lbs of venison at one time including that from all those smelly deer. Grabbed my box and left.
The reason for the above paragraph is that it relates evidence of how poorly venison is treated by many hunters. ....both during field dressing and afterwards......Fred
I don't corn venison to hide unpleasant flavors, but because I genuinely like the taste of it. Can't beat a good Rueben sandwich made with it.
I like the taste of good venison, and lose interest when anyone starts talking about ways to make it taste like beef. A ridiculous idea, IMHO. The distinctive taste of good venison has nothing to do with poor handling, at least not at my house. Mother nature put it there.
The same goes for any of the dark meat waterfowl, squirrel, raccoon, muskrat, etc. They are delicious, and it's their wild taste which makes them so. Love liver, too, as long as it's not Crow liver.
When I want the taste of beef, I eat beef, if I want chicken flavor, I eat chicken. I consider the taste of most any well tended game to be a treat to look forward to, the result of having been reared in a hunting family, I suppose. That makes me one of the lucky ones.
Spence
I like the taste of good venison, and lose interest when anyone starts talking about ways to make it taste like beef. A ridiculous idea, IMHO. The distinctive taste of good venison has nothing to do with poor handling, at least not at my house. Mother nature put it there.
The same goes for any of the dark meat waterfowl, squirrel, raccoon, muskrat, etc. They are delicious, and it's their wild taste which makes them so. Love liver, too, as long as it's not Crow liver.
When I want the taste of beef, I eat beef, if I want chicken flavor, I eat chicken. I consider the taste of most any well tended game to be a treat to look forward to, the result of having been reared in a hunting family, I suppose. That makes me one of the lucky ones.
Spence
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Very true Spence.
Venison is not beef, nor should people expect it to taste like beef. It has it's own unique flavor that is determined by the individual animal's diet and environment. I cringe any time someone suggests marinating venison with "Italian" dressing or some similar gloopy concoction to mask it's taste.
All venison needs is a stick, a hot fire and a little salt...
Venison is not beef, nor should people expect it to taste like beef. It has it's own unique flavor that is determined by the individual animal's diet and environment. I cringe any time someone suggests marinating venison with "Italian" dressing or some similar gloopy concoction to mask it's taste.
All venison needs is a stick, a hot fire and a little salt...
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