To Serve Man

Or Section 4

I went deer hunting for the first time and shot two deer, a buck and a doe. Afterwards I skinned and butchered one of three deer shot that day. It was pretty easy given my history cooking and tending to dead animals. Some years ago I cleaned a black bird skull in exchange for a tattoo, the process was similar on a larger scale. All and all I took home a nice backstrap and some roasts. The rest is being ground into burger and sausage. So I’ve been marinating and today I decided to make a venison bourguignon. I went with a Julia Child’s recipe for beef figuring it was close enough. Venison is a lot leaner, something I keep getting reminded of, but I’m not new to cooking so.

Its not an incredibly complex stew to make. I went with a cheap merlot for this batch. I always forget that there are no potatoes in the mix and how hard it is to find pearl onions that are fresh. I used soy, Worcestershire, rosemary, and garlic powder for the meat and let it chill for two days. I tried to keep the salt content low since those sauces have a lot of sodium. I used butter instead of oil to fry my bacon to boost the overall fat in the pot. The venison held all the flavors nicely even though it was lean throughout.

The whole thing turned out really tasty. I’m going to do something different for the backstrap. Heres the recipe.

1 tablespoon butter

▢6 ounces bacon roughly chopped

▢3 pounds venison

▢1 carrot large, sliced 1/2-inch thick

▢1 white onion large, diced

▢6 cloves garlic minced (divided)

▢1 pinch coarse salt

▢1 pinch ground pepper

▢2 tablespoons flour

▢12 pearl onions small, optional

▢3 cups red wine like Merlot, Pinot Noir, or a Chianti – for a milder sauce, use only 2 cups of wine

▢2-3 cups beef stock (if using 2 cups of wine, use 3 cups beef stock)

▢2 tablespoons tomato paste

▢1 beef bouillon cube crushed

▢1 teaspoon fresh thyme finely chopped

▢2 tablespoons fresh parsley finely chopped, divided

▢2 bay leaves

▢1 pound white mushrooms fresh, small or brown mushrooms ,quartered

▢2 tablespoons butter

In your pot fry the bacon in 1 tablespoon butter

Remove bacon and pat dry

Brown your venison in batches then remove from pot

Saute your onions and carrots about 3 minutes

Add four tablespoons garlic and saute about 2 minutes

Return bacon and venison to pot

Dust with flour and brown for about 5 minutes

Add pearl onions, wine, and stock until meat is slightly covered. Add herbs, tomato paste, bullion. Cover and bring to boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 2 hours.

Saute mushrooms in butter and garlic about 10 minutes before the 2 hours have passed then add to pot.

Mix and simmer the remaining time

Serve