I’ve been making a lot of charcuterie using UMAi DRY casings lately, and, after a month, my first one is done: a chorizo-style salami made from elk flavored with wild fennel seeds. It’s been years since I made salami, but after my first bite of these, It’s going to be a regular thing. Making salami…
Venison
I love venison, and I cook a lot of it. My selection here is different hunting sites that specialize in it though: I work primarily with off-cuts, organs, cured meats, and things off the beaten path.
You can find backstrap recipes anywhere. If you're new here, make sure to try your hand at Venison Bacon. If you're adventurous, try some smoked kidneys or learn how to work with deer trotters.
Smoked Shank Stew with Huitlacoche and Tepary Beans
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…
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. If you’re not familiar, biltong is made by cutting meat into slabs about an inch thick, seasoning, with black pepper and coriander, and allowing to dry for 1-2…
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…
Balsamic Blue Cheese Sauce for Venison, Game and Vegetables
Chocolatey and thick, shimmering with sugar, fat and funk, Balsamic-Blue Cheese sauce is one of the great sauces in my secret stash I bring out occasionally. I learned the sauce working under chef William Salvadore from Milan, and it was love at first spoonful. The restaurant he owned was an Italian-inspired American steakhouse concept, and…
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…
