Venison shanks (any shanks, really) make great soup and stews, and this one, with Mexican flavors of dried beans and huitlacoche, is fantastic. Originally I was trying to recreate a soup my mother described to me from a trip to Mazatlan, but, instead of the brothy soup I intended, it turned into a more stick-to-your…
Four-Legged Animals
Venison Biltong
If you like making charcuterie at home, or even just like a good bag of jerky, you’ll love biltong. Just think beef jerky, but softer, more tender. I learned about the South African charcuterie through a friend who’d lived there, and, after a bad biltong craving, built a curing chamber specifically for it at home. …
Venison Tasso Ham
Venison tasso may not exactly be a traditional charcuterie, but if you like spicy, smoked ham, you’ll love it. If you’re not familiar (it’s kind of an obscure ham) tasso is a smoked creole ham that, from my experience, typically has a spicy rub of paprika and cayenne, among a bunch of other things. When…
Boneless Venison Ribs
Rib meat has to be one of the most underrated cuts of venison. Typically it will go in the grind pile after getting a thorough trim, or, as I see more often, left on the carcass for the cayotes. Today, I have for you, solid proof that deer ribs make for great eating, and…
Venison Liver Pate
Looking for a good pate recipe for venison liver (or any liver for that matter?) here you go, this is my go-to. This is basically the same recipe I was taught by one of my old chefs, who learned it from a master butcher from Rome (Chef Fillipo Caffari). Mostly we would make it with…
Venison-Bear Fat Nduja
I’m a charcuterie freak: if it’s cured, salted, smoked, aged, potentially strange and delicious, I’m on board. Nduja, a little known spreadable salami from Calabria that’s been a chef secret for years now checks a lot of those boxes. I had my first taste of it at a dinner by Chef Wyatt Evans at his…
Dry-Aged Elk Backstraps
I’ve really enjoyed dry-aging all kinds of meats in my Umai Dry aging bags, especially the whole legs I’ve done, so it was only a matter of time before I tried out the process on the most prized cut of venison: the backstrap. Being familiar with the process of dry-aging and having some ideas about…
Carpaccio with Beefsteak Mushrooms
Carpaccio, the classic Italian appetizer of tenderized, thinly sliced raw beef served with olive oil, arugula and good parmesan, was one of the first recipes I was taught to prep when I worked for Chef Angelo Volpicelli, the first teacher I can credit with showing me a few of the ins and outs of traditional…
Unborn Venison
I’ve always loved Halloween, and I usually do something “seasonal” when it comes around. As a disclaimer, I have to tell you that if you’re one of my vegetarian or vegan friends, you’ll probably want to skip this one. If you eat meat, and you appreciate the interesting odd tidbit, you may find it interesting,…
Honey Mushroom Bourgignon
Once the cold weather hits, a good Bourgignon is one of the first things that I usually make each year. If you’re wondering what it is, it’s just beef burgundy (here I use venison neck but another stewing cut will work). You take some stewing meat, soak it in decent red wine overnight, then brown…
Suckling Pig with Chestnut Crabapples
A few years ago I did a dinner organized by my friend Mike Jozwik of Mushroom Mike LLC with James Beard Award Nominee Chef Dan Fox of Heritage Tavern in Madison. Heritage Tavern is a good restaurant, but one thing that really sets them apart is their farm they use to supply the restaurant with a…
Rabbit Ragu with Wild Herb Gnocchi
I love small game, and I have plenty of rabbit recipes on this site, but most of them are for the whole creature cut into parts, or maybe stewed. One thing I’ve been meaning to put up is a solid rabbit pasta sauce like I used to make working under my chef from Rome, Angelo,…
Venison Osso Bucco with Dried Mushrooms
There is possibly nothing more satisfying than eating an entire venison shank, and one of my favorite ways to cook them is a simple braise with dried mushrooms, herbs, stock and wine. Cutting down the shanks Venison osso bucco or cross cut shanks need some preparation during butchery to look as they’re pictured here. I…