Game meat recipes

[strawberry shortcake]

Thought I would start a new thread and post some of the recipes my grandparents used for game meat. The first set of recipes are for marinades used to soak the meat 12 to 24 hours before cooking. ALWAYS let your marinade sit in the refrig for at least 12 hours before using. These marinades can also be used for sauces instead of throwing them out, they are that good. To clarify, marinades are used to tenderize and remove gaminess from game meat prior to cooking. Sauces are used to pour over finished meat. Marinades can be turned into sauces, whereas sauces cannot be used for marinades. I will post some sauce recipes later. The first two marinades are cooked and can also be canned for later use.

1. Sassaties Marinade (enough for 3 lbs of meat and is slightly sweet)

Soak overnight in just enough water to cover: 1/2 cup dried apricots. Then cook them until soft and press the apricots and water through a sieve or puree in a blender. I use a double boiler or microwave as apricots can scorch on the stove. Set aside.

Saute until golden in 2 T butter: 3 large sliced onions and 1 minced clove garlic. Add 1 T curry powder and cook for a minute.

Then add the apricot puree to it with: 1 T sugar, 1/2 t salt, 3 T vinegar, cayenne to taste, and 6 lemon or orange leaves (I prefer orange leaves and the fresher the better, short stems are okay if they are tender, otherwise remove them). Crush the leaves a bit to release the flavor.

Bring all to a boil, remove, and store in refrigerator. If it seems a bit thick, add white wine and/or sherry, a tablespoon at a time, to thin just a bit.

Pour over raw meat and refrigerate at least 12 hours, turning at least once.

Fry or grill the meat. Heat the sauce to boiling and pour over the grilled meat. Serve with rice.


2. Cooked Marinade For Game (makes 8 cups that you can use as needed and you can even can it, it is not sweet).

Saute in 1/4 cup cooking oil: 1 cup each chopped celery, carrot, and onion. Then add: 8 cups vinegar, 4 cups water or broth of your choice, 1/2 cup chopped parsley, 3 bay leaves, 1 T thyme, 1 T basil, 1 T cloves, 1 T allspice berries (not ground), a pinch of mace, 1 T crushed peppercorns, 6 crushed cloves garlic. Simmer 1 hour. Strain and put in refrig in tightly sealed glass container, or can it. I sometimes put sherry or wine in this in place of some of the vinegar. I am not that fond of so much vinegar.

Use for marinade and for cooked sauce as above.


3. Beer Marinade (makes 2 cups, is spicy and sweet, is not cooked, and does not can well at all)

Combine the following:
1 and 1/2 cups beer (I use a dark beer)
1/2 t salt
1 T dry mustard
1 t ground ginger (I always use fresh)
3 T soy sauce
1/8 t hot pepper sauce
2 T sugar (or you can use brown sugar)
4 T marmalade (orange is best)
2 cloves minced garlic

Marinade meat for at least 12 hours. Fry or grill. Use left over marinade to season pan sauces or as a base for a cooked gravy sauce.

I forgot to add that if you cook your tougher game meat in moist heat, wrapping with bacon is always a good idea and goes well with the marinades and sauces. If you have young tender meat, I have found that larding is not necessary, though I will sometimes fry and crumble bacon into the marinades when I use them for the sauce.


#4. One more and I can't believe I forgot to put this one in.

Traditional Teriyaki Sticks, backstrap style!

If you cut your backstrap like I do, thinner and about 2 to 3 inches long, you have perfect cuts for Teriyaki Sticks. And since this is not marinated very long, you will want tender meat which is what backstrap is all about.

1 cup soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)
2 cloves garlic, chopped fairly fine (I use BIG cloves)
1 T chopped fresh ginger, chopped fairly fine
1 smallish onion, chopped fine
1/2 cup sugar (brown sugar works well too)
1/2 cup sherry (dry is best and don't use "cooking sherry", get the real stuff and have a glass, served room temperature, while you are cookkkkingg)
If you like it spicy, use cayenne pepper to taste.
And if you really do this right, make the marinade first and put it in the frig for no more than 12 hours. It is not a cooked marinade so will not keep.

Spear 2 or 3 pieces onto bamboo skewers (I buy them by the pack, and please don't use metal ones). Combine all the ingredients (if you have a Cuisinart, bully for you, I don't). Marinate on skewers in the marinade for about an hour (I have had them in the marinade for about 3 hours). Drain slightly and broil over charcoal, turning to cook both sides. Cook well, don't try for rare.

 

[strawberry shortcake]

Now for sauces.

Probably the best sauce there is for game meat is something called Hunter's Sauce, and for the highfalutin, also called Sauce Chasseur. The real thing is damned hard to make and takes hours. Plus chefs think you should strain out all the stuff you put in. I don't strain it. I serve it as is. And I don't cook the veggies till they turn into mush. So here is my recipe for Hunter's Sauce (and no it is not the hunter's sauce I drink while making it - I'll save that for another thread). Before I get into it, my apologies to chefs for not being a purest.

Step 1. First the veggies (called Mirepoix for those of you who are highfalutin):

Dice up 1 carrot, 1 onion and 1 celery (use inner ribs if you want a finer flavor). Add 1/2 crushed bay leaf (use fresh if you can find it), 1 sprig fresh thyme, and 1 T minced bacon. Saute quickly (like only a minute or two) in 1 T butter (in other words don't cook till the veggies are soft). Deglaze the pan with a splash of Madeira and have a glass while you make this. Set aside. The real version sautes the veggies till soft and lightly glazed brown.

Step 2. You need to make a brown sauce called Sauce Espagnole. Brown sauce is good to make ahead and this recipe makes 6 cups. Get all the ingredients ready to throw in because you must work quickly. Again, this is my version, not the complicated one chefs make. You can also can this sauce after you make it.

Melt in a heavy skillet, 1/2 cup meat drippings (can't use venison for this because venison doesn't have enough fat in it to make drippings, but elk might). Throw in the veggie "Mirepoix" from above and add 1/2 cup flour. Saute till flour is a good brown color (you can also reverse this and brown the flour first, then add the Mirepoix, and if you really want fresh veggie taste, don't saute the Mirepoix before hand, just throw in the ingredients for Mirepoix, including the splash of Madeira after you brown the flour and saute it all together). Work quickly and continue to stir. Crush and add 10 black peppercorns, 2 cups drained peeled tomatoes (I use the canned fire roasted ones), and 1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley. Add 4 cups beef stock. This is where my version is different than the real one. You are supposed to add 8 cups and simmer till the entire thing is reduced by 1/2. But this turns the veggies into mush and I think destroys the fresh flavor you get from sauteing. After you add the 4 cups stock and heat to simmer, the entire mix should be whipping cream thick. If it is too thick, thin with sherry. If it is not a good brown color, you didn't saute the flour long enough. Remove from the stove and cover with plastic wrap placed right on the surface so that as it cools, a skin won't form. Keep in the frig in a tightly sealed glass container. It will last about 2 weeks.

Step 3. Now for the hunter's sauce.

Saute 2 T minced onion or shallots in 2 T butter. Add 1 cup sliced mushrooms (morels would be my choice). Add 1/2 cup dry white wine (I usually go half and half with white wine and dry sherry) and 2 T brandy. Simmer till reduced by half (do this part - it makes a difference). Then add 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1 cup of the brown sauce from above. Simmer 5 minutes. Correct seasonings and add 1 t chopped parsley.

So that is my version of a much more complicated sauce. Many chef schools have this as a major part of their classwork. If you can't make a pure Espagnole (and it can take 8 to 12 hours to make), you are not an accomplished saucier. So once again, my apologies to chefs.

I would serve this over any prepared game meat, smothering it just before serving, with noodles and green beans on the side, and homemade bread. A good red wine like Sarah or Shiraz would be perfect. Burgundy, in my book, has too strong a flavor and can smother the food you eat it with.


For those of you who want the 8 hour version of Brown Sauce

After you add 8 cups of beef stock, simmer on the stove till reduced by half. As you do this, stir occasionally and skim off the fat as it rises to the top. This can take 2 to 4 hours. Strain the sauce and then cool off the stove, stirring occasionally so the skin does not form. Correct the seasoning when cool.

 

[strawberry shortcake]

So now that we've been through my tortured cooking class for game marinades and sauces (raise your hand if you think I cook by the seat of my pants and get pretty marinaded and sauced while doing it), let's combine the marinades with the brown sauce. Here's how to do it:

It's known as pepper sauce, but its formal name is Poivrade and is the traditional sauce served with venison. Peppery is an understatement. It combines Brown Sauce with the marinades above. Rolaids recommended.

Heat: 1/4 cup cooking oil and saute till browned: 1 chopped carrot, 1 chopped onion, and smaller game bones, trimmings, whatever.
Add: 3 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf, a pinch of thyme, and 1/4 cup marinade liquid then simmer till reduced to 1/3 original quantity. Don't skimp. Really reduce it.
Add: 3 cups brown sauce and bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for another hour.
Add: 10 peppercorns and simmer 5 more minutes then strain into another sauce pan.
Add: another 1/4 cup marinade liquid and cook slowly for 30 minutes more.
Add: 1/2 cup dry red wine (dry, dry, dry as in not, not, not sweet).
Correct seasonings and believe it or not, add freshly ground black pepper to make it a hot pepper sauce. Pour over cooked meat and serve.

 

[joesnuffy]

Great post but this should be moved into the "Recipies" part of this forum.

 

[strawberry shortcake]

I didn't want to hijack the threads in the main forum which are dedicated to catching and eating Osteichthyes and Chondrichthyes :>).

 

[strawberry shortcake]

I'm doing the Teriyaki sticks and the Poivrade Sauce for venison steaks for a BBQ tomorrow. I'll take pics and let you know how they turn out.

 

[Hawk]

Sounds reel good Sis...

I still remember the monkey meat on a stick that was sold in Subic Bay (olongapo) P.I.
& San Miguel beer.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[Hawk]

We used to BBQ a pig on the spit once ina while......YUM

 

[strawberry shortcake]

I made the Mirepoix (veggie mix) and put it in the Espagnole (brown) Sauce, which is also done (took about 6 hours total and I did the strained version). My two marinades (Teriyaki and beer marinade) are in the frig getting flavors blended. The brown sauce turned out JUST the way I like it (milk chocolate brown, creamy, and flavorful). Tonight I'll put the steaks in the beer marinade and then tomorrow morning make the venison pepper sauce. Then all gets packaged up to take to the BBQ and target shooting day. During the day I'll skewer the backstrap onto bamboo sticks and put them in their Teriyaki marinade. Come BBQ time, the steaks go on the grill along with the Tariyaki sticks, I'll saute some mushrooms for a side, and heat up the pepper sauce. I took pics as I was cooking so I'll post when I get the chance.

The venison steaks, smothered in their traditional pepper sauce with a mushroom side were cleaned up. Not a steak left. The Teriyaki sticks were a little over done and did not spend enough time in the Marinade. But they were well received as a quick snack before dinner. I had too many pots on the fire and should have asked one of the group to watch the grill while I pan fried mushrooms and heated up sauces. The pepper sauce turned out to be the hit of the game dishes, and found its way over to the huge, tender, moist brisket my friend spent all day making. We ended the meal with the best watermelon I have had in years.

 

[strawberry shortcake]

Did up some more Teriyaki Sticks. This time I soaked the sticks in water for 24 hours. They burn up if you don't do this part. I also marinated the Venison for 12 hours this time around and basted as I BBQ'd. MUCH improved! Big ass hit among the guests and fork tender. Put in more of the spices and onions, and added extra heat with the cayenne pepper. Used red wine instead of sherry.