Ground Venision

[Furian67 15]

I have a few packages of ground venison my boss gave me in the freezer. Anyone have any ideas for a tasty meal made with this. Each package is about 1lb each. I have a payday coming on Friday this week. I can go grocery shopping for whatever ingredients I may need.

[Tharkane 1]

I have a few packages of ground venison my boss gave me in the freezer. Anyone have any ideas for a tasty meal made with this. Each package is about 1lb each. I have a payday coming on Friday this week. I can go grocery shopping for whatever ingredients I may need.

 

Venison is lean...and gamy in flavor, if it wasn't processed properly. If it's been treated properly, then you have a healthy, lean meat to eat that requires some sprucing and spicing up in order to avoid tasting bland. This recipe for venison meatloaf is very close to what an old girlfriend of mine used to do with the venison she had stored in her freezer (yes, she hunted, processed, and butchered it herself):

 

Venison Meatloaf

 

You can also use the venison to make some tasty chili, if you so desire. Whatever you use it in, don't rely on the venison to carry the flavor, because it won't. On the other hand, considering how healthy it is for you compared to beef, it's worth the effort.

[chattius 2,531]

I take back every bad thing which I said about our barbaric local hessian food. Putting venison meat in a grinder, how cruel, how barbaric, why, ....?

 

Is your boss a hunter?

 

I have to admit that I do it myself with not needed parts from venison or deer which I cut away when butchering a whole one. I either grind this meat or if it seems useful for drying I make Biltong. Biltong is dried flesh, invented by dutch settlers in south africa. A nearby camping area is full of dutch people in summer who want to visit the birthplace of Wilhem of Oranje in the town of Dillenburg. One gave me a nice recipe of Biltong muffins: The dried flesh real fine grinded and used like flour.

 

But you have ground venison:

 

Okay we germans are named Krauts, and so here is a recipe with Kraut (cabbage)

 

Rotkohlroulade mit Wildfüllung

following pictures are white cabbage, I use red cabbage

 

 

 

 

Pictures are from this german recipe, but I prefer red cabbage for wild boar, deer, venison and wirsing or white cabbage for pig or cow.

 

http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/16676312748...hlrouladen.html

 

1 red cabbage

salt water

 

The tricky part is to remove the leaves without destroying them. I use to put the whole cabbage in a pot with boiling water, wait till the first leave is soft, take the cabbage out remove the leaf with a tongue (hot!), put rest in pot again, wait for next leaf to be soft, and repeat till I have all the leaves. My wife as a doctor has a way better handiness and she just moves her hand below the leaves and is able to remove the leaves when the cabbage is cold. Whatever you did, you need undestroyed leaves of different sizes

Carefully cut away most of the hard middle part of the leaves and boil the leaves until they are soft and formable.

 

1 Brötchen, alt und sehr trocken - a old and very dry bread roll in the size of a fist, if it is a leftover from 14 days before it is just right

 

Put the bread roll in a bit of water and soften it

 

750g ground venison

250g ground cattle (cow, ox or whatever the name is)

2 eggs

3 onions

1 salted filet of european anchovy (to soften the taste of old or male venison)

2 toes of garlic

some parsley

salt, pepper

 

Cut the parsley, anchovy, carlic, onions into fine pieces. I use one of these 2 handed knives which have half circle blades.

 

Add the eggs, bread roll and ground meat and mix it with your hands. Form 8 portions. Find the 16 biggest leaves and lay out 8 pairs with overlapping leaves. Lay all the leaves so that the cut away middle part is up. Place 2 third of a portion on each of the pairs. Do layers of 8 mid sized leaves, rest of portion and cover with small leave. Roll it into a nice shape and fix it if needed (I use re-usable silicon thread).

 

Do 2 spoons of Schmalz or fat in the pot (how do you name them, the ones from the picture).

 

In my oven: 200 celcius for 30 minutes till it is brown, easy to see at white hard to see at red cabbage

 

Do a mix of half a litre bouillon (soup from meat extract) and a glass of red wine. Reduce the temperature to 140celcius and from time to time (15-20 minutes) pour some of the mix on the roulades. Should be ready after one hour at 140celcius (core temperature of a roulade at 85celcius). But it depends on your oven.

 

We serve it with whatever is easy to get at the season

In summer we serve it with potatoes and musroom sauce with self collected mushrooms (it is fun to collect them with kids)

In autumn: baked quinces and a quince/chilli sauce

In winter and spring: potatoe damplings and Rotkraut. Rotkraut is very similiar to Sauerkraut but from red cabbage.

 

I prefer it with Rotkraut all the year, but I am overvoted most of the time: 4 daughters, wife and au-pair girl versus me and a 2 year old son who always changes his opinion when his sisters look angry at him.

 

WARNING:

Best google for a english variant. I never had english at school and recipes is a thing I do hard. I a mused to technical decriptions and articles, but not for the words found in receipes

Edited October 27, 2010 by chattius

[wolfie2kX 528]

I take back every bad thing which I said about our barbaric local hessian food. Putting venison meat in a grinder, how cruel, how barbaric, why, ....?

 

Is your boss a hunter?

 

I have to admit that I do it myself with not needed parts from venison or deer which I cut away when butchering a whole one. I either grind this meat or if it seems useful for drying I make Biltong. Biltong is dried flesh, invented by dutch settlers in south africa. A nearby camping area is full of dutch people in summer who want to visit the birthplace of Wilhem of Oranje in the town of Dillenburg. One gave me a nice recipe of Biltong muffins: The dried flesh real fine grinded and used like flour.

 

But you have ground venison:

 

Okay we germans are named Krauts, and so here is a recipe with Kraut (cabbage)

 

Rotkohlroulade mit Wildfüllung

following pictures are white cabbage, I use red cabbage

 

 

 

 

Pictures are from this german recipe, but I prefer red cabbage for wild boar, deer, venison and wirsing or white cabbage for pig or cow.

 

http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/16676312748...hlrouladen.html

 

1 red cabbage

salt water

 

The tricky part is to remove the leaves without destroying them. I use to put the whole cabbage in a pot with boiling water, wait till the first leave is soft, take the cabbage out remove the leaf with a tongue (hot!), put rest in pot again, wait for next leaf to be soft, and repeat till I have all the leaves. My wife as a doctor has a way better handiness and she just moves her hand below the leaves and is able to remove the leaves when the cabbage is cold. Whatever you did, you need undestroyed leaves of different sizes

Carefully cut away most of the hard middle part of the leaves and boil the leaves until they are soft and formable.

 

1 Brötchen, alt und sehr trocken - a old and very dry bread roll in the size of a fist, if it is a leftover from 14 days before it is just right

 

Put the bread roll in a bit of water and soften it

 

750g ground venison

250g ground cattle (cow, ox or whatever the name is)

2 eggs

3 onions

1 salted filet of european anchovy (to soften the taste of old or male venison)

2 toes of garlic

some parsley

salt, pepper

 

Cut the parsley, anchovy, carlic, onions into fine pieces. I use one of these 2 handed knives which have half circle blades.

 

Add the eggs, bread roll and ground meat and mix it with your hands. Form 8 portions. Find the 16 biggest leaves and lay out 8 pairs with overlapping leaves. Lay all the leaves so that the cut away middle part is up. Place 2 third of a portion on each of the pairs. Do layers of 8 mid sized leaves, rest of portion and cover with small leave. Roll it into a nice shape and fix it if needed (I use re-usable silicon thread).

 

Do 2 spoons of Schmalz or fat in the pot (how do you name them, the ones from the picture).

 

In my oven: 200 celcius for 30 minutes till it is brown, easy to see at white hard to see at red cabbage

 

Do a mix of half a litre bouillon (soup from meat extract) and a glass of red wine. Reduce the temperature to 140celcius and from time to time (15-20 minutes) pour some of the mix on the roulades. Should be ready after one hour at 140celcius (core temperature of a roulade at 85celcius). But it depends on your oven.

 

We serve it with whatever is easy to get at the season

In summer we serve it with potatoes and musroom sauce with self collected mushrooms (it is fun to collect them with kids)

In autumn: baked quinces and a quince/chilli sauce

In winter and spring: potatoe damplings and Rotkraut. Rotkraut is very similiar to Sauerkraut but from red cabbage.

 

I prefer it with Rotkraut all the year, but I am overvoted most of the time: 4 daughters, wife and au-pair girl versus me and a 2 year old son who always changes his opinion when his sisters look angry at him.

 

WARNING:

Best google for a english variant. I never had english at school and recipes is a thing I do hard. I a mused to technical decriptions and articles, but not for the words found in receipes

 

Sounds pretty good. It's been a long while since I've had any sort of stuffed cabbage. I might have to give it a shot - I saw some buffalo (Americn Bison) steaks at this shop earlier tonight. The sign said they'd be happy to grind anything in the case for you. Buffalo, like venison, is rather on the lean side.

 

Let me see if I can help you with some of those terms...

 

Ground Cattle = Ground Beef

Ground Cattle sounds like a cow, ox or bull that's had it's legs amputated prematurely or something and is permanently on the ground. (gotta LOVE/HATE English for all those multipurpose words).

 

750g = about 1.65 US pounds

250g = .55 US pounds

200 C = 392 F (call it 400 F for ease of dialing in that oven)

 

toes of garlic = cloves of garlic

 

Remove the leaves of cabbage with TONGS... No matter how you slice it, removing it with your tongue > < would be rather painful - especially if you've just pulled it out of boiling hot water!

 

The pot in the middle picture would appear to be a 9 x 13" baking dish, aka a casserole also aka as a lasagna dish...

 

140 C = 284 F (call it 275 F for easy dialing in on the oven)

85 C = 185 F

 

For what it's worth - 85 C sounds awful high for an internal temp. Sounds overly well done - but then again, we are talking about wild game here. Best cook it a bit more and be sure you killed off anything nasty than to get sick... Better safe than sorry..!

[wolfie2kX 528]

I have a few packages of ground venison my boss gave me in the freezer. Anyone have any ideas for a tasty meal made with this. Each package is about 1lb each. I have a payday coming on Friday this week. I can go grocery shopping for whatever ingredients I may need.

 

Well... Venison chili does seem to be a natural idea for what you've got.

 

Of course, you could get seriously perverse with the stuff and mix in some ground beef (the fatty stuff) and make a holos burger walk on the wild side... Since you're going solo - you don't have to go full bore with it - maybe instead of the standard sized pizza - make it with the smaller, personal pizzas instead.. Call it the Mini-Me of Holos Burgers...

[chattius 2,531]

Yes, braising wild game is better in killing parasites than high heat over a shorter time.

 

The forest is like an island in mid of several highways, so not much animal exchange possible. No predators around so hunting is needed to keep the numbers in control and the owner of the forest is most of the time on sales travels so I have to do it.

 

Schmoren , english braising, can reach higher core temperatures than preparing something in a pan with fat because it takes longer. With ground beef (thanks for the word), I sometimes do smaller roulades in a pan. But wild game needs heat over a longer time to have the fibres brake up and be sure that parasites are killed. All veterian controls never showed any, but with kids you want to be sure. And because of the island structure and the parking places from the highways we get all kind of nastly little animals traveled with people returning from holidays.

 

Buffalo would be an interesting Sauerbraten I think. Don't know how it is in america, but here you can get meat marinated for some days already at some supermarkets. I prefer to do the marinating myself but you don't want to know how many not so good results I had in my experimenting phase.

[gogoblender 3,071]

Creative cooking juices are at full force these days here. See what you've got going again, Furian ^^

 

I've had venison a few times, and, it's like what Wolfie said, pretty gamey... meaning some high end intense flavor... for me, with meat, I like it with no bones, fat, cartillage, skin or feathers.

 

Processed?

 

Processed meats just don't taste right, but game meats are a bit much for my taste buds, though if I was visiting, I'd definitely take a bite out of whatever was in the pot.

 

Good luck on this one Furian, we'll be expecting a starring return of your Iphone Camera ^^

 

 

gogo

[chattius 2,531]

Gogo

That's why we do venison mainly as Sauerbraten. The week long marinating weakens the wild game taste. Same goes for not marinated ground venison. Braising it in a cabbage in a wine mix removes most of the gamey taste.

 

How was your venison meat prepared?

I am always looking for recipes. My daughters don't like it too gamey too. So if you say what you had I can exclude these recipes from my 'to try out list'

[wolfie2kX 528]

Yes, braising wild game is better in killing parasites than high heat over a shorter time.

 

The forest is like an island in mid of several highways, so not much animal exchange possible. No predators around so hunting is needed to keep the numbers in control and the owner of the forest is most of the time on sales travels so I have to do it.

 

Schmoren , english braising, can reach higher core temperatures than preparing something in a pan with fat because it takes longer. With ground beef (thanks for the word), I sometimes do smaller roulades in a pan. But wild game needs heat over a longer time to have the fibres brake up and be sure that parasites are killed. All veterian controls never showed any, but with kids you want to be sure. And because of the island structure and the parking places from the highways we get all kind of nastly little animals traveled with people returning from holidays.

 

Buffalo would be an interesting Sauerbraten I think. Don't know how it is in america, but here you can get meat marinated for some days already at some supermarkets. I prefer to do the marinating myself but you don't want to know how many not so good results I had in my experimenting phase.

 

Sauerbraten - sounds doable.. Tho I have had buffalo burgers before. The flavor is not that far off from regular ground beef - tho it's supposed to be healthier (leaner meat).

 

Premarinated meats - Yup. We've got that sort of thing here as well. Not quite sure how long they've got the stuff sitting there, but I would hope it's not been sitting there for days. For what it's worth - I'm with you. If I'm gonna do something that requires a marinade - then I'm going to do it myself. Most of the seasonings they use, I find to be somewhat off - not quite the way I like it. It's like the old saying - if you want something done right, do it yourself.

 

Creative cooking juices are at full force these days here. See what you've got going again, Furian ^^

 

I've had venison a few times, and, it's like what Wolfie said, pretty gamey... meaning some high end intense flavor... for me, with meat, I like it with no bones, fat, cartillage, skin or feathers.

 

Processed?

 

Processed meats just don't taste right, but game meats are a bit much for my taste buds, though if I was visiting, I'd definitely take a bite out of whatever was in the pot.

 

Good luck on this one Furian, we'll be expecting a starring return of your Iphone Camera ^^

 

 

gogo

 

Processed isn't an evil word when it comes to meat. You like pepperoni on your pizza - no? That would be classified as "processed" meat. Same with most lunch meats (bologna, salami, hot dogs, and any other kind of sausage.) Processed meat can simply be defined as any plain meat that's had anything added to it - even salt and pepper.

[locolagarto 15]

Typically the Venison here in the Midwest United States (lots of corn fields) has great flavor. Corn fed venison tastes about the same as lean beef or Bison.

 

When the winters get harsh with a lot of snow, the deer feed on twigs and pine cones or anything they can find above the snow and the meat gets really gamy.

 

Usually only the lesser quality meat gets ground. And some processors (Butchers, not factories) will introduce some Ground Beef or pork into the Ground Venison just to make is more Beef like.

 

Pretty much anything you would use ground beef for you could substitute venison. But as they mentioned above it will be a bit dry, so you may have to add some oil for a more beefy texture.

 

Chattius' stuffed cabbage sound pretty darn good.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Typically the Venison here in the Midwest United States (lots of corn fields) has great flavor. Corn fed venison tastes about the same as lean beef or Bison.

 

When the winters get harsh with a lot of snow, the deer feed on twigs and pine cones or anything they can find above the snow and the meat gets really gamy.

 

Usually only the lesser quality meat gets ground. And some processors (Butchers, not factories) will introduce some Ground Beef or pork into the Ground Venison just to make is more Beef like.

 

Pretty much anything you would use ground beef for you could substitute venison. But as they mentioned above it will be a bit dry, so you may have to add some oil for a more beefy texture.

 

Chattius' stuffed cabbage sound pretty darn good.

 

Yah.. I got a hankering for some stuffed cabbage after reading this thread.. So.. Tonight, I made a batch. Kinda sorta followed Chattius' game plan, if not the exact recipie. Didn't have any venison - so I substituted ground beef. Also upped the ratio to 1 part ground beef to 1 part ground pork. Forgot the eggs and garlic. D'OH! I also threw in 1/2 a cup of cooked rice. They actually held together pretty well regardless. I baked the stuffed cabbage in the oven for about an hour @ 350 F.

 

Instead of mushroom sauce, I made it with a tomato sauce. I also finely shredded the cabbage left over from the middle of the cabbage I got the leaves from after remvoing that tough darn near inedible core. I sauted the cabbage shreds and then threw in a can of sauerkraut that I lightly rinsed to get rid of the excess salt. I topped this concoction with a jar of Kroger brand spagetti sauce.

 

I served it with cooked potatoes boiled in salted water.

 

Overall, it came out pretty darn good, if I say so myself.

Edited October 28, 2010 by wolfie2kX

[chattius 2,531]

Yes stuffed cabbage is very flexible, different meats, different cabbages, with potatoes, potatoe damplings, potatoe noodles, rice, ... Add different sauces and salades.

 

Allows a lot of combinations. Our second daughter likes to experiment like me:

 

She brushes some marmalade on top of the stuffed cabbage before she puts it in the oven so it gets a crunchy/crispy surface. She does it mainly when we serve it with baked quinces. We do our marmalades ourself with the dozens of differrent fruit trees we have around.

 

A marmalade from quinces, elder berries and CHILLI tastes really good if you want a crispy surface. Be it stuffed cabbage or a goose at x-mas. Fantastic mix of sweetness and spice.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Yes stuffed cabbage is very flexible, different meats, different cabbages, with potatoes, potatoe damplings, potatoe noodles, rice, ... Add different sauces and salades.

 

Allows a lot of combinations. Our second daughter likes to experiment like me:

 

She brushes some marmalade on top of the stuffed cabbage before she puts it in the oven so it gets a crunchy/crispy surface. She does it mainly when we serve it with baked quinces. We do our marmalades ourself with the dozens of differrent fruit trees we have around.

 

A marmalade from quinces, elder berries and CHILLI tastes really good if you want a crispy surface. Be it stuffed cabbage or a goose at x-mas. Fantastic mix of sweetness and spice.

 

Exactly what sort of chilli do you mean? Jalapeno? Serrano? Scotch Bonnet? There are bazillions of varieties of chili peppers out there - all with a varying degree of heat.

[chattius 2,531]

We have halblanger Vulkan, translated into 'halflong vulcano', grewing in pots at home. I found a german site which has a 'hotness scale' for the different chilli variants:

 

 

It lists Halblanger Vulkan scale as 5-6.

5-6 Jalapeno,

6 Serrano

10 Scotch Bonnet

 

It was cultivated in Austria to ripe in alpine climate. So it is more robust to survive where we live. I will do a translation of the site:

 

Halblanger Vulkan

Art: - species

Capsicum annuum

Schärfe: -hotness

5-6

Reifung: colour while getting ripe

von grün nach rot - from green to red

Reifezeit: time to get ripe

70-80 Tage - 70-80days

Frucht: -fruit

längliche Früchte, ca. 60-100 mm lang, Durchmesser ca. 10-20 mm, dickfleischig, hängend

longly, 2.5 to 4 inches long, diametres of 0.4 -0.8 inches, thick flesh, hanging

Herkunft: Where is it from

Österreich - Austria

Wuchs: How it grows

buschig, standfest

bushy, strong stand

Verwendung: usage

Saucen, dünne Chiliringe zum belegen von Broten

Sauces, thin chilli rings to put on bread.

 

Beschreibung: Außer der Herkunft und der Schärfe ist uns eigentlich gar nichts über diese Sorte bekannt.

Description: Except from where it is and hotness the writer doesn't know much

 

Eigene Erfahrungen: Diese Sorte wächst sehr buschig und kompakt. Die Früchte wachsen hängend bis leicht seitlich, sind dickfleischig und saftig mit einem süssen Paprika-Geschmack. Die Erträge waren für die eher mittelhohen Pflanzen sehr gut.

Writers own experiences: bushy and compact growing. Fruits are hanging and on outside, thick flesh and juicy. The taste is like sweet paprica. For the small plant it has a big harvest.

[wolfie2kX 528]

@ Chattius -

 

Looks like it might be a variant of the Serrano chilis.. Probably some local variety as it doesn't seem to be broadly cultivated. I didn't find any mention of it except on that site you linked to. Serranos look like those - except the serrano tends to be fairly straight.

 

I gotta wonder about that site. Most people refer to a chili pepper's heat in Scoville Units. Bell peppers are at 0 SU while jalapenos are rated at about 2500 SU. Serranos can get to about 10,000 while the scotch bonnet and it's cousin, the habanero can top 350,000 SU.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

 

At any rate... That does sound intriguing. At most here, in L.A., about all you'll ever see is Jalapeno jelly - which is pretty darn good actually. I may have to play with the concept a bit when I have the time to do it.

[chattius 2,531]

The german wiki page of the scoville scale names a system using 0-10++ used in Mexico and europe. German page says that scoville scale fails if different molecules add to hotness and that for easiness the 0-10 system is used.

The link I gave in the above post uses both systems, didn't know that USA uses mainly or exclusivly Scoville. Learnd something new.

[Furian67 15]

Love the ideas guys, thank you very much. I'm liking the idea of a Mini-Me Holosburger a walk on the wild side.