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    Home » Meat and Game

    Elk or Venison Bresaola

    Published: Jan 22, 2022 Modified: Apr 15, 2023 Author: Alan Bergo

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    If you like making charcuterie, or are charcuterie curious, bresaola is a great place to start. Bresaola is a traditional Italian charcuterie, and it's a lot easier to make than other types of cured meats as it's a whole-muscle cure. With whole muscle cures, all you have to do is season a piece of meat, put it in the fridge for a couple weeks, then rinse, pat dry, and allow the meat to dry and age. 

    For a traditional bresaola recipe, the meat would be hung in a place with a specific humidity, and that's where things get challenging if you're trying to do it at home. If it's too humid, you can get mold and the bresaola is ruined. If it's too dry, you can get case hardening and the bresaola will be like eating bark with soft meat in the middle.

    Venison Backstrap Bresaola
    Using backstrap.

    Obviously neither of those scenarios are ideal, and the fear of failing and wasting meat, as well as the learning curve often scares people away from trying things like this at home.

    Slicing elk backstrap bresaola
    Slice the finished bresaola paper thin for the best eating.

    I've made charcuterie and whole muscle cures at a number of restaurants with custom curing and aging rooms, and, while I have the knowledge of how to do it, I don't really feel like dedicating space to it at home. This is where UMAi DRY comes in.

    I've talked about the product in a number of posts here, and will continue to, because it's really the easiest way to make high-quality, dependably good charcuterie at home, without the learning curve and space commitment that comes with crafting your own curing chamber out of an old fridge or something similar.

    With UMAi DRY, all you have to do is season the meat, pack it into the bags, put them in the fridge, and wait. After a few weeks of curing, it's ready to go, and there's no worry of case-hardening, mold, or any sort of safety or aesthetic issues. 

    Elk bresaola on a cutting board.
    Use a larger leg muscle for bigger slices.

    Cuts you can use

    You don't have to use backstraps to make bresaola, but I did here because I had some on hand, traditionally, lean muscles from the leg will work. Beef eye of round is traditionally used as it's circular and lean, but with venison any lean muscle from the leg will work just fine.

    The biggest thing to remember is to make sure that the meat doesn't have sinew or connective tissue going through the meat, as it will get stuck in your teeth in the finished product, so you won't be using the sirloin tip/football roast from a deer leg. 

    Venison Backstrap Bresaola

    Related Posts on Charcuterie

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    Smoked Venison Shanks

    Beef Bacon

    Sliced elk bresaola on a plate.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    5 from 3 votes

    Elk or Venison Bresaola

    A simple bresaola made from venison backstraps or a lean muscle from a leg cured with UMAi DRY bags.
    Prep Time15 minutes mins
    Curing time60 days d
    Total Time60 days d 15 minutes mins
    Course: Charcuterie
    Cuisine: American, Italian
    Keyword: Backstraps, Bresaola, Charcuterie, Venison
    Servings: 10
    Calories: 191kcal
    Author: Alan Bergo

    Equipment

    • UMAi DRY small charcuterie bags

    Ingredients

    • 4 lbs 1800 g Elk use a whole muscle from the leg, or loin backstrap, preferably from the short loin.
    • 3 % salt or 53 grams kosher salt see note
    • 7.5 T Umai Bresoala Spices or use your own
    • 4 g instacure no 2

    Instructions

    • Combine the ingredients for the cure and rub all over the meat. Put the meat in a vacuum bag, seal, and marinate in the refrigerator for 2 weeks to allow the cure to penetrate.
    • Remove the meat from the vacuum bag, rinse off the cure (scraping with the side of a knife helps) then pat the meat dry, and seal in the UMAi DRY bag, using the vac mouse (included with the bags) to help it seal.
    • Transfer the meat to a baking sheet with a rack and refrigerate for 4-6 weeks, or until dry and no longer squishy in the middle.
    • After the meat is cured, you can vacuum seal it for 24 hours to refresh the texture, or slice and enjoy as is. After removing from the UMAi DRY bag, I like to cut the bresaola into pieces, vacuum seal and freeze, then pull as needed and slice from the freezer.

    Video

    Notes

    Using percentages of salt 

    The recipe proportions may seem strange here. All you need to know is that you're multiplying the weight of the meat by .03-that is the amount of salt you will use, along with 1 gram of intacure no 2 per pound of meat. 

    Using other cuts of venison 

    You can make bresaola from many different cuts of game. The best will be solid, lean pieces of meat like top round. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 2oz | Calories: 191kcal | Protein: 40g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 200mg | Potassium: 538mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 5mg
    « Wild Fennel Seed Venison Chorizo
    Moroccan Foraged Greens with Preserved Lemon: Bakoula »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Steev Wilson

      March 14, 2024 at 9:58 pm

      5 stars
      This recipe is amazing! I used an eye of round from a cow elk about 3 pounds start weight. The instructions could not be simpler. I have been curing in a Frankenstein style converted refrigerator with humidifiers, fans, sensors and all the rest, this method blew that away! There was no guess work, no refilling water all the time, not worrying about which mold is which. You just put it in the bag and stick it in the fridge, done. Then you just weigh it whenever you get impatient. Mine took about 35 days to reach the desired weight. The flavor is amazing and the color is so vibrant. This is the perfect gateway game meat for the venison suspicious, put this out on a cheese board and no one will ever believe they are eating wild game.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        March 15, 2024 at 2:27 pm

        Hey thanks Steve. I just actually finished packing a batch of salami this afternoon. One thing I don't think gets mentioned enough is how clean and bright the flavors are-another benefit of the bags. If you haven't tried using them to make salami and cured sausages you should definitely try that too as they're done in just a few weeks.

        Reply
        • Steev Wilson

          March 15, 2024 at 9:45 pm

          5 stars
          I have been eyeing the chorizo recipe next. I have some Biltong and a bone-in venison ham that I a curing in the style of prosciutto in bags and in the fridge now. Have you done a soppressata style sausage with venison? I am curious if the bags would still work if they were submerged in olive oil.

          Reply
    5 from 3 votes (1 rating without comment)

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