As fall arrived I made sure my bow and arrows were in order. The DMV is filled with suburban deer who face minimal hunting and predator pressure. This imbalance creates space for invasives and hampers natural forest succession. Look at many of our parks in the winter, if they are not running a program to manage the deer, any plants growing below shoulder height are most likely heavily browsed or invasives. Part of the philosophy AK follows is that humans are not apart from nature but are a part of it. While humans have caused this situation and it would be ideal to have the whitetail’s natural predators, wolves and mountain lions come in to fulfill their ecological role, most of the public does not want top predators in their backyards. As a result it is on use to harvest the deer.
Part of respecting the deer is utilizing as much of it as possible. We save our hides for teaching students as well as for our own personal projects. We harvest the sinews for building arrows and atlatl darts, making bow strings and more. We demonstrate using the bones for tool making. And the meat gets eaten. Many people only take a few choice cuts off the deer, the backstrap is the most popular, and some cuts out of the rump. The rest if they keep it gets ground up and turned into burger.
Whitetail meat is extremely healthy. In my view it is extremely ethical to consume as the deer have not been subjected to confinement and filthy conditions in the industrial agricultural system and we are . Venison has a reputation. Some say it is “gamey”. Part of that is expecting it to taste like beef or other commercially raised animals. Some of that is poor processing (if you want to learn how to cleanly and safely process a deer sign up for our Way of the Hunter course). Some people complain venison is tough. Part of that is deer are wild animals who haven’t had soft cushy lives they have more connective tissue per pound of meat than a cow. If you approach the meat in the appropriate manner for how to cook it, it is excellent.
Last week we had a guest at the cabin. They had come from out of town to teach a class for us and were going to stay in the spare bedroom. I had received a front shoulder off a deer and made it for dinner for the two of us. The front shoulder off a deer isn’t the prize cut, but cooking it slow and low, braising it for a few hours turns it into a wonderful meal. The recipe which follows is for lemon and wine braise venison shoulder. I accompanied it with lemon and herb pan roasted potatoes, but turmeric and lemon roasted carrots would also be an excellent veg to go with it. While I prepared it for two people, there was plenty left over. This shoulder off a medium sized buck would have easily fed a family of 4. A small doe would probably feed 4 and a large buck would serve 8. If people want more recipes for other under appreciated cuts, next month I will tackle the shanks.
I deboned the shoulder. You can view this video of deboning a lamb shoulder, the process is the same. If you take your deer to a butcher, you can ask they do this for you.
Salt and roll the shoulder and tie it up with butchers twine.
Preheat your oven to 325.
Sear the shoulder in a hot cast iron pan with olive oil, alternatively you could do this on a grill.
After you have seared it off transfer it to a covered roasting pan with one onion sliced. Deglaze the pan with the veggie stock and pour the used stock into the pan. Juice a lemon into the pan and put the squeezed-out lemon in there, add a few sprigs of thyme, 1.5 cups white wine, two cloves garlic and black pepper. This moderate heat and the liquid let the tough connective tissues break down and become nice and tender.
Cover it and place it in your oven at 300 for 3.5 hours. If you are busy, you could also place it in a slow cooker and let it run all day.
Once done, pull from the oven and allow it to cool for 30 minutes. Slice and serve with your choice of sides.
I would strongly recommend reserving the braising liquid once the meat has rested, straining it and returning it to a sauce pan. Bring it to a simmer and add a slurry of 1Tbs cornstarch and 1Tbs COLD water per cup of liquid. Whisk it together and as soon as the starch flavor has cooked off remove it from the heat. Serve this sauce over the venison.
Ingredients:
- One deboned venison shoulder rolled and twined
- 1.5 cups white white
- 1.5 cups veggie or chicken stock
- 1 onion sliced
- 5-8 sprigs of thyme
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lemon
- Salt 1tsp salt
- Black pepper 1 tsp
Optional sauce:
- 2 cups strained braising liquid
- 2Tbs cornstarch
- 2Tbs cold water.
Post Submitted by AK Staffer- Kyle Dexheimer