You already know: Wild game is one of the healthiest, most nutritious proteins you can put in your body. Wild meat is lean with a high protein-to-calorie count, and it’s void of injected hormones and antibiotics.

So it makes sense to focus on wild game if you’re trying to lose weight, or just eat a more nutritious diet. I know this first hand. I lost 80 pounds in six months. A serious calorie deficit was the main reason, coupled with getting out with the dog, riding an exercise bike, and dragging out deer. I went from 265 pounds to the 185 I am now. 

My case was an extreme one. I can nearly guarantee that any dietician would advise against my level of calorie deficit. But still, I think my experience plus the perspectives of a lifelong hunter and registered dietician, which you’ll find below, will be useful to folks with much less extreme health goals. If you want to eat a little better, lose some weight, and live healthier, this story could be a good start. For me, it wasn’t about getting into beach-bod shape or looking good on IG, it was about being healthy enough to hopefully avoid an early, catastrophic heart attack (more on this later). 

If any of this sounds relatable to you, then start here before diving into the deep end, continuing your own nutrition research and checking in with a professional. 

Wild Game Nutrition Data

Here’s a nutrition chart showing the values of a variety of wild game critters based on a 100-gram, or 3.5-ounce, serving. Info for the chart comes from “Wild Game: A Nutrition Guide for Game Animals in North America.”

The above numbers are helpful to know, but the benefits of consuming wild game extend past the story of a nutrition label. For example, meat from grain- and corn-fed cattle is high in omega-6 fatty acids, which can increase inflammation in the body and lead to obesity, diabetes, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Venison, however, due to a deer’s diet, contains higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids. People with significant levels of omega 3s in their diets are less likely to experience a heart attack.

Another way to lower your chances of a heart attack or stroke is to eat anything that goes “quack” or “honk.” Duck and goose fat contains a significant amount of monounsaturated fat (versus polyunsaturated fat). Monounsaturated fat can also help reduce bad cholesterol levels in your blood and lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. 

Understanding Wild Game and Dieting

Laura Makarewicz, 31, is a registered dietitian at a VA clinic in New Mexico where she focuses on outpatient cardiovascular health. Growing up in Missouri, she first joined her dad in the deer blind at age 3.  

When patients tell her they have access to venison, Makarewicz encourages putting it on the plate as much as possible. “I assure them, ‘That is a great protein source.”

Fat is not a bad thing, but according to Makarewicz we get plenty of fats from other sources. When selecting a meat, leaner is better. This is where wild game comes into play.

The key is not adding unnecessary fats and sugars while cooking wild game. Too often home cooks preparing wild game look to mask the “gamey-ness” with the addition of unhealthy ingredients. Whether it’s a can of cream of mushroom soup (a Minnesota staple for every wild-game recipe), a blanket of beer cheese, or any number of sugary marinades and sauces, that lean wild game’s calorie count grows exponentially during cooking. 

READ NEXT: Beef vs. Venison

The truth is, wild game that’s prepared without all those additions tastes just the way it’s supposed to taste, unless it wasn’t properly cared for in the field (or if it was a bruiser buck shot during the rut.)

For those trying to lose weight (and for those trying wild game for the first time), I recommend meat seasoned solely with salt and pepper. The innate flavors of a borderline rare whitetail backstrap are delicious and unique. There’s no need to mask them. Here’s another thing: The more that you eat wild game the way it’s supposed to taste, the more you will recalibrate your taste buds to wild game. Chicken and beef will start to taste bland. Your mouth and stomach will crave backstrap and other wild game with “personality.” 

READ NEXT: Best Wireless Meat Thermometers

Fruits, Vegetables, and Grains

Another good tip is to add plenty of fruits and vegetables, specifically ones that have bright color. Think bell peppers and broccoli over russet potatoes. Makarewicz advises that 45 to 60 percent of one’s diet should consist of carbs, but in the form of colorful fruits and vegetables. If you’re including grains, again opt for color. Choose the whole grain bread over the white bread. For grains, you want at least 5 grams of fiber per serving (check the nutrition label to confirm this.) If cooking with oils, choose olive or avocado, not butter, in an effort to avoid saturated fats. Hint: Healthy, unsaturated fat is liquid at room temperature.

How I Did It

Let me be clear: no health professional would recommend doing what I did, and I don’t suggest that you follow my extreme approach. But maybe you can find some helpful motivation for eliminating bad eating habits and replacing them with good ones. If I could do it, so can you.

My daily calorie requirement likely falls between 1,800 and 2,200 calories (depending on the day and my activity levels). During the first two and a half months of my diet, I kept my calorie count to an average of 700 calories. “That’s borderline starvation,” my doctor told me. 

But it worked for me. I stayed hydrated, incorporated a bit of exercise throughout the week to keep muscles active and to support my metabolism. I made sure I took in ample protein for both lunch and dinner. On days when I had plans to put in several miles afield or potentially drag out a deer, I raised my calorie count accordingly.

An average day looked like this: 

• 150 calories worth of steel-cut oats for breakfast 
• 200 calories from a salad (low-fat Italian or Catalina dressing) with one carrot and 4 ounces of venison 
• A similar dinner for another 200 calories
• Approximately 150 calories worth of snacks throughout the day 

Initially, I was losing at least a pound a day, more like 10 pounds a week. For the serving of venison, it could have been shavings from a backstrap or top round I grilled the weekend prior, or simply ground venison seasoned with taco spices (no sugar). Salsa is a great salad dressing substitute. So is buffalo sauce, like the medium offering from Buffalo Wild Wings. Crumbling a few tortilla chips or a little bleu cheese overtop isn’t bad, either.

Health professionals recommend raising your calorie intake by 100 calories per week following a diet, until you reach your “maintain” level. Logic being: Your body requires time to adjust. I didn’t do that, either. After my 700-calorie period, I moved up to 1,200 calories for a month or so, then 1,600 for the remainder of the 6-month period. In the later phases, with the higher calorie allowance, I incorporated less-lean game meats like skin-on Canada goose. 

I started to recognize my body had settled around 184 pounds, where it remains now, nine months since I began.

To continue to maintain, I make a point to eliminate white bread and white grains from my diet. I pay the extra money for Ghee (clarified butter) over regular butter for when I want that butter flavor in my cooking. In terms of potatoes, especially the fried kind, it’s almost as if a hypnotist got to me at some point, because fried potatoes, which I used to love, sound unappetizing now. My potato-loving Irish ancestors are likely turning over in their graves.

I’m lucky to have access to a seemingly endless supply of ground venison. That is what my wife and I use for any dish requiring ground meat. I have a lot of chukar in the freezer, alongside a limited supply of pheasant and quail. If I am not tapping into that assortment, I am buying chicken from the store. 

And here’s a big secret reveal: I ate a lot of tofu during the first two and a half months of my diet. It was cheap and easy to prep for the week. Did it taste like clumps of wet toilet paper? You betcha. But it worked for my diet. Hopefully my tofu days are over now. 

Getting Healthy Is About a Lot More Than Diet

“If you are just focusing on one aspect as opposed to making a true lifestyle change, you’re maybe going to get the results you that you want for three or six months, maybe a year,” Makarewicz says. “But if you’re not making a complete lifestyle change, most people aren’t going to get to the goal that they want. Focusing on foods that are nutritious is way more important than focusing on ‘healthy’ foods.” 

For example, sugar is often portrayed as bad for you, but for athletes with weekly rigorous routines, added sugars are essential to fuel the body. 

Plus, being so restrictive to the point that you can’t keep up your routine is why most people fail to reach their goals. 

“Some people come in and say they are never going to have cake again,” Makarewicz says. “‘Really?’ I ask. ‘You’re not going to eat cake on your birthday? Are you a sadist?’”

Your goal may begin with a calorie deficit approach (like mine did), but Makarewicz advises counting calories should serve only as an initial approach. The following concepts are more focused and offer a high chance of long-term success:

• Know your goal. Visit a professional. Get a plan and be realistic with a long-term lifestyle in mind.
• Counting calories is not sustainable but if doing so helps, apps like MyFitnessPal can be useful.
• Get a scale but weigh in once a week. More often than that can result in you getting in your head and potentially straying from the plan. Remember: body weight naturally fluctuates day-to-day.
• Incorporate regular exercise into your routine as lean muscle is key to maintaining a proper metabolism and burning fat.
• Stay hydrated. Fitness in both body and mind is largely the result of proper hydration.
• Avoid alcohol. There is absolutely zero nutritional value in it, regardless of the old adage, “A glass of red wine a day…” It also dehydrates you.
• Moderation is best, and that is in regard to everything you consume. That means, yes, you can have cake.
• Control your portions. If you refer to the nutrition guide above, you’ll see a serving portion of meat is 100 grams (or 3.5 ounces), which is basically a deck of cards. (So yes, you can overeat when it comes to wild game.)
• Eat often, ideally every 3-4 hours, versus splurging on calories for one meal, which can cause your body to become dysregulated.

Don’t Trust Google

For anyone looking for a focused, nutritious diet, Makarewicz advises meeting with a registered dietitian once or twice. Don’t just start scouring Google for dieting information. 

“I will Google the same question that patients ask me, and the stuff that comes up is absolutely insane,” she says.

There are a lot of varying opinions and ideas in the field of nutrition. When so many online sources are looking to turn a profit off their portrayal of “nutrition,” instead choose to trust a professional and the freezer of wild game in your basement.

“This stuff changes a fair amount, which makes it more confusing,” says Makarewwicz. “The food industry doesn’t make anyone’s lives any easier.”

Get help from someone who can actually offer a solid plan. Head into the meeting fully understanding your goals, first and foremost. “I can educate people until I am blue in face,” said Makarewicz, “but if they don’t know why they want to change … That is one thing I can’t teach people: motivation.”

Why I Did It

Last summer my father-in-law, at the age of 71, had a heart attack. He underwent a sextuple bypass, experienced complications, had a second surgery to correct internal bleeding. Then, upon returning home, he almost died from the collective total of a 21-inch blood clot. Months prior his older brother had passed away from cancer after, doctors believe, suffering through a couple strokes. My mother-in-law’s younger brother, in April of last year, passed away from a heart attack at the age of 63. Through it all, I witnessed the toll it took on my mother-in-law and my wife. I drove her almost daily to visit her father in the hospital. 

My 5-year-old daughter saw all this and did her best to understand the funerals and hospital visits. A week into her pa-da’s recovery, I was reading her a story at bedtime when she interrupted me, “Dad, you need to lose weight.” 

At 265 pounds, I knew she was right, but wanted to know her reasoning. 

“Why?” I asked. “Because I don’t want you to die,” she said.

That was the breaking point for me. I took a hard look at myself in September 2022 and made the clear decision: It was time to quit the B.S.

One of my best friends was on his own weight-loss journey and served as a mentor to me. His first piece of advice was on point: “Eat right. Get a scale. See the difference after a week. You’ll never look back.” 

Through the process, I thought about what it means to be a hunter, the origins of hunting, the primitive nature of it all, and how honoring the kill is about more than just what happens afield. Homage is paid in the scouting, in the miles you travel, in the work you do at the range. Hunters have a reverence for hard work. So it makes perfect sense to continue working after the tag is punched and the meat carving is done. Work for yourself, and for those who matter most to you.

Reach out to me on Instagram (@WildGameJack).

The post How to Diet by Eating Wild Game appeared first on Outdoor Life.

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.

A pocketful of jerky is pure bliss for most hunters. It’s even better when you make it yourself. But, to attain that heightened state of meat happiness, you’ll need to know how to make deer jerky. It’s a simple process that has been used for centuries to preserve venison. 

In its earliest forms, jerky meant thin strips of salted meat dried either in the sun or over a smoky fire. Those methods are time and labor intensive. But, with modern appliances, we can make enough jerky to last an entire hunting season in a day or two, all while going about our normal day-to-day schedule. Here’s how to make deer jerky at home.

Step 1: Preparing the Meat

You can make jerky out of just about any lean meat. Venison of all kinds is popular, as is beef, pronghorn, bison, African plains animals—you name it. For the purpose of this article, we will concentrate on venison, but the techniques transfer over to just about any kind of meat.

Just about any lean part of your deer can be made into jerky. The best cuts of meat for jerky are top eye, and bottom round roasts, sirloin tips (that football shaped roast on the back hams), rump roasts, and neck roasts.

Jerky Thickness and Grain Direction 

When it comes to slicing jerky meat, you have some choices. Slicing with the grain gives the finished product more of a satisfying chew when you bite it. Going against makes the jerky more tender and easier to eat. Try them both and see which one you prefer.

The most important part of slicing jerky is to make it a consistent thickness. You want the jerky to dry at an even rate. Having a mix of thin and thick jerky drying means going through it constantly to pick out thinner pieces that may be finished, while a thicker piece next to it might still need hours before it’s safe to eat.

What thickness, you ask? It’s up to you, to a point. Thicker slices, while meaty and satisfying, don’t keep well without refrigeration. Thick jerky also takes a lot longer to dry. Thin strips of meat dry fast, but they can get overdone in a hurry, leaving you with a crispy piece of meat that crumbles more than chews. My preference is somewhere in the middle. I slice most of my jerky around ¼ inch in thickness.

How to Slice Deer Meat for Jerky

There are a number of ways to slice your venison. First, and by far the simplest, is a good sharp knife. Partially freezing the meat for an hour or two before slicing helps to firm it up and makes hand slicing at a consistent thickness easier to accomplish. Work in batches, taking only as much meat out of the freezer at a time as you can slice before it softens back up.

Next, on the list is a jerky slicing guide. These guides are made from metal or wood and feature a shallow tray to hold the meat and thickness guide. They are like manual deli slicers. 

If you really enjoy jerky and want to make large batches, consider investing in an electric meat slicer. They have sliding guides that allow you to adjust the thickness of each piece, and make short work of several pounds of venison.

Another handy option to crank out several pounds of jerky strips in a hurry is a crank-style jerky slicer. Often sold as a combo unit that includes a cuber attachment, these slicers have a large open neck at the top that allows the user to drop in a large cut of meat and guides it through a set of blades that turn with the crank of an outside handle. While not adjustable for thickness, these units turn out a very uniform slice about ¼ inch thick and do it in a hurry.

How to Make Deer Jerky from Ground Meat 

Have a few packs of last year’s ground meat in the freezer that you need to use up? Here’s how to make deer jerky from ground meat. The basic idea is to mix it with your favorite commercial or homemade jerky seasoning and form it into long, thin strips to dry.

You’ll use a jerky gun, which looks like a large caulk gun and comes with various tips for squeezing out flat strips of ground meat for drying. While ground meat jerky doesn’t have the rewarding chew of sliced, many jerky lovers say the flavor is better since the seasoning runs throughout the ground meat.

READ NEXT: How to Cook Venison: The Best Ways to Cook Every Cut

Step 2: Marinade and Cure 

Jerky needs seasoning. That can be salt and spices sprinkled on the raw meat and allowed to rest overnight, or, more popular, a marinade. The best deer jerky has a balance of salty and sweet flavors. Popular ingredients for marinades include soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, your favorite commercial wild game marinade, hot sauce, brown sugar, BBQ rub, black pepper, spices, honey, maple syrup, coffee, and any number of other flavors that you enjoy. 

Adding an acid like citrus juice or vinegar helps to perk up the finished flavor of the jerky. Try mixing and matching until you find a combination that you love. Marinate your jerky for at least 24—and up to 48—hours. Marinade flavors tend to dull a bit as the jerky dries, so make sure yours has plenty of zing to start with. If you enjoy the barbecue flavor of smoked meats, but plan to use your oven or a dehydrator to dry your jerky, then add a few spoonfuls of Liquid Smoke to your marinade.

Does Jerky Need Curing Salt? 

When it comes to adding sodium nitrite, known as Instacure #1, Prague powder or pink curing salt, to jerky and other cured meats, you will often run into differing opinions. While it is true that sodium nitrite in relatively large doses can make you sick, so can botulism and some bacterias. And the nitrites help to protect against that. Always use Instacure #1 and other brands of curing salt at the recommended rate, 1 teaspoon per 5 pounds of meat. As long as you follow this rate, nitrites are safe to consume. 

Bacterias that cause foodborne illness tend to thrive in the temperatures and conditions you find in most dehydrators. A bit of curing salt is good insurance that your jerky won’t make you or your friends and family sick.

Best Deer Jerky Recipe

• 5 pounds well-trimmed venison
• 1 1/2 cups soy sauce
• 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 level teaspoon Instacure #1

Step 3: Drying 

Once your jerky has marinated, it’s time to dry it. Drying at low temperatures, between 145 and 165 degrees, yields the perfect finished product. Go much lower than that and the meat takes too long to dry and might not dry completely. Much warmer than 165 degrees and the jerky cooks rather than drying, leaving you with a crunchy piece of meat that isn’t very satisfying. The outlier on the normal jerky temperature range is wild pork and bear jerky. Since both of these animals can carry trichinosis, cranking the temperature up to the 165-175-degree range ensures the jerky is safe to eat.

Here are some of the best ways to get the perfect jerky. With any of these methods, leave some space between the jerky slices so that air can pass over them for even drying.

Making Jerky in a Dehydrator

For my taste, a dehydrator is the best way to make jerky. They dry meat quickly without over drying it. Look for a unit with multiple removable shelves, a fan to keep air moving, and a heating element with precise temperature control. Here’s how to make deer jerky in a dehydrator. 

With most dehydrators, drying time ranges from 4-9 hours, depending on fan speed and design. When drying multiple racks of jerky in a batch, rotate the trays periodically so that each tray spends the same amount of time closer to the fan and heating element.

READ NEXT: The Best Dehydrators for Jerky

Look for a dehydrator with removable trays for easy cleanup after your jerky is done. Patting the jerky dry once it comes out of the marinade also helps to cut down on cleanup time.

Making Jerky in a Smoker 

A close second behind a dehydrator is a smoker. Smoked jerky has a great campfire flavor that is hard to beat. If your smoker has upper and lower racks, cover the lower rack with foil for easy cleanup and either lay your jerky flat on an upper rack or, better, suspend it from the upper rack from wooden skewers. 

Read Next: Best Smokers

Simply thread several jerky slices onto a skewer and drop the meat between the grill grates of the rack, leaving the meat suspended from the wooden skewer resting on the upper grate. This method allows you to fit a lot of jerky into a compact area while still letting the smoke hit the entire meat surface for maximum flavor.

Read Next: Best Wood Pellets

Smoke at the lowest temperature setting your smoker will operate at. For my Traeger Pellet Grill, that’s about 165 degrees. Dry for 4-6 hours or until the jerky is dry but still slightly flexible.

Making Jerky in the Kitchen Oven

If you don’t have a dehydrator or smoker, you can make great jerky in your kitchen oven. Treat it just like the smoker, lining the bottom rack with foil for clean up purposes, then suspending the jerky from the top rack on wooden skewers.

Set your oven at the lowest temperature and use a wooden spoon or something similar to prop the door open a bit to allow for air flow. If your oven has a convection feature, use it. If it doesn’t, a small fan resting just outside the oven door and positioned so that it blows into the open crack of the oven door keeps enough air moving to evenly dry the jerky.

Drying times are similar to the dehydrator, but, depending on the oven and lowest temperature available, the jerky can dry quickly. Start checking about 3 hours in so that your jerky doesn’t over dry and get brittle.

Making Jerky Over a Fire

If you really want to go old school, and you have plenty of time, go with a smokey fire. You don’t need a ton of heat, but you want the fire to smolder and smoke.

Suspend your jerky over it on a wire grate or on a wooden spit resting on a couple of Y-shaped sticks stuck into the ground on either side of the fire. 

You’ll have to monitor the fire closely to keep just the right amount of heat on the meat without overcooking. You might have to scoot the meat around to keep it in the smoke depending on wind direction. As a temperature guide, hold your hand near the meat. You want it to be hot, about the temperature of hot tap water, but not so hot that you can’t hold your hand in place for several seconds.

Is campfire jerky better than other methods? Not really. But it’s satisfying to make a batch the way our ancestors did from time to time.

How to Store Jerky 

Once your jerky is dry, you need to store it for long-term use. Glass jars with tight fitting lids work, as do plastic food containers with snap on lids. My favorite way to keep jerky is vacuum sealed in packs sized to last a few days on a hunt. You can keep it refrigerated for several weeks, but to get maximum storage, freeze the jerky and take out what you need before each hunt. I have kept sufficiently dry jerky at room temperature for two or more weeks at a time with no issues. Will it last even longer than that? Most likely, but keeping it frozen until I need it removes any doubt.

The post How to Make Deer Jerky in an Oven, Smoker, and Dehydrator appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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Best Overall		FoodSaver FM2100	SEE IT
Best Compact		FoodSaver VS1150	SEE IT
Best Chamber		Meat! Chamber Vacuum Sealer	SEE IT

I have a few hundred pounds of meat and fish in my deep freezer and I know it will keep for well over a year because it’s all vacuum sealed. Whether I’m buying half a cow or coming home with a cooler full of fish, everything gets portioned, sealed, and labeled. I’ve been using the same trusty FoodSaver for nearly eight years. While it served me well, it was time to test some of the newer options on the market that take up less space and are considerably quieter.

Here are three of the best vacuum sealers and a DIY option for when you find yourself without one. 

• Best Overall: FoodSaver FM2100
• Best Compact: FoodSaver VS1150 
• Best Chamber: Meat! Chamber Vacuum Sealer
• DIY vacuum sealer 

How I Evaluated the Best Vacuum Sealers

I abandoned freezer paper years ago and exclusively use a vacuum sealer while processing fish, wild game, and farmed meat. I used that experience to evaluate vacuum sealers on the following criteria:

• Noise (Does the sealer make excessive noise?)
• Efficiency (Does the sealer operate quickly and easily?)
• Features (Things like the footprint, bag storage, bag cutter, and custom vacuum settings)

Best Overall (Best for Home): FoodSaver FM2100

FoodSaver

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Key Features

• Dimensions: 4 x 16.3 x 9.2 inches
• Built-in roll storage and cutter bar 
• Dry and moist modes
• Removable drip tray
• Accessory port
• Includes: Three-quart bags, two-gallon bags, one 11-inch x 10-foot roll, and an accessory hose
• Price: $147

Pros

• Quiet
• Powerful
• Low height makes it easy to fit into drawers 

Cons

• Bag sealing could be faster 

The FM2100 is only 4 inches tall and 9 inches wide, so it can slide into most deep kitchen drawers. The internal bag storage and cutter are intuitive and convenient, which is really nice when you’re cranking out a lot of bags. To use the sealer, you’ll insert the bag to be sealed or vacuumed, close the lid, and then move the latch on the right side to “Operate.”

I expected the latch to be like flipping a light switch, but it’s more like the force required to move a gear shifter. Then you’ll press the seal or vacuum button. The vacuum is fairly quiet, and you can tell the unit has a lot of power as it’s pulling air from the bag. Once it’s done, it automatically seals off the bag. I can’t stress enough how intuitive it is to make a bag, drop meat in it, and then vacuum seal it with the FM 2100. You can get in a groove and get a lot of food ready for the freezer. 

If you want to vacuum jars, containers, or even a bottle of wine, the FM2100 comes with an accessory hose. The hose attaches to FoodSaver jar sealers, wine stops, and food storage containers. Among those accessories, the storage containers are the most useful to me. That’s because they allow you to vacuum liquids without the mess of trying to do it in a vacuum bag. They open the door to preserving soups and doing quick marinades. Just be aware that the containers aren’t cheap, but there are compatible options from other brands for a lot less money. 

My old FoodSaver took up a lot of cabinet space, and it was annoyingly loud. The FM2100 solves those two main issues, and I think it’s the best vacuum sealer for home use. 

Gear decisions often come down to compromises. The Meat! Chamber Vacuum Sealer is the better vacuum sealer because of its versatility and feature set. But that performance comes at a price and size penalty. For a quarter the price of the Chamber Vacuum Sealer and a much smaller footprint, the FM2100 strikes a nice balance of performance and real-world usefulness. 

Best Compact: FoodSaver VS1150 

FoodSaver

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• Dimensions: 4 x 12.2 x 5.7 inches
• Compatible with 8-inch vacuum seal rolls and 1-quart and 1-pint vacuum seal bags
• Can be used with the FoodSaver Handheld Sealer attachment (sold separately) to vacuum FoodSaver Zipper Bags and Fresh Containers
• Price: $65

Pros

• Small footprint
• Easy to operate

Cons

• Louder than the FM2100 
• No bag cutter

Kitchen gadgets take up a lot of space, and if you’re looking for a small vacuum sealer for preserving food, marinating, sous vide, or taking on trips, the VS1150 is the best vacuum sealer out there. It doesn’t have features like bag storage or a bag cutter, but it will still quickly and easily vacuum seal. Remember that it cannot use large bags and will only work with 8-inch or smaller bags. 

The operation couldn’t be more straightforward. You insert the bag, close the lid, pull the switch, and push the button for your desired operation. The first part of the vacuuming process is very quiet, but it transitions to a high-pitched sound as it finishes, which makes it louder than the FM2100. 

I think the VS1150 shines as a portable unit to take on fishing trips—I’d prefer the FM2100, which can use large bags for hunting. At the end of each day, you can drop whole cleaned fish or filets into bags, seal them, freeze them, and they’re ready for the journey home. The sealer itself doesn’t take up much space in luggage or even a carry-on bag. 

Read Next: Best Wireless Meat Thermometers

Best Chamber Vacuum Sealer: Meat! Chamber Vacuum Sealer

Meat!

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Key Features

• Includes vacuum bag sampler pack, vacuum pump oil, and tools 
• 12-inch sealing bar 
• Digital time display 
• Chamber Dimensions: 13 x 12.2 x 3.9 inches
• Weight: 65 pounds
• Exterior Dimensions: 16.73 x 14.17 x 14 inches
• Price: $800

Pros

• It uses less expensive bags than an external sealer
• Great for marinades and liquids 
• Seals jars
• Custom settings

Cons

• It takes up a lot of space
• Heavy

If you process a lot of meat, this professional chamber vacuum sealer is the one you want. It works fast and is built to last through years of hard use. It’s also a chamber sealer which comes with a lot of advantages. Instead of sucking the air out of the bag, the pressure is equalized inside the bag and the chamber, which means you can vacuum liquids in bags without a mess or questionable bag seal. It also results in a much tighter seal with fewer air bubbles, and it can vacuum jars without any special attachments. Here are the issues, though: it weighs 65 pounds and costs $800. But it’s worth every penny if you have the space and can afford the price.

Read Next: How to Cook Venison: The Best Ways to Prepare Every Cut

DIY Vacuum Sealer 

On a family vacation to the Outer Banks, we decided to all go offshore fishing, where we caught a ton of triggerfish and mahi-mahi. The only issue was that we needed to freeze those excellent-eating filets for transportation. With no vacuum sealer at our Airbnb, I used a simple trick I learned from a fishing guide. Here’s how to vacuum seal without a pump. 

You’ll need the following:

• Ziplock freezer bags
• A large container full of water 

You put your filets in a gallon ziplock bag. Slowly submerge the bag in water to force out the air, then seal the bag off just above the water’s surface. It’s not a perfect vacuum seal, but it will keep the freezer burn off your meat until you can get it properly sealed up for long-term storage. 

How to Choose the Best Vacuum Sealer 

Chamber vs. External Vacuum Sealer

An external vacuum sealer, like the FoodSaver options in this review, sucks air out of the front of the bag and then seals it. A chamber sealer equalizes the pressure inside the bag and in the chamber. That key difference is why chamber sealers are better options for sealing liquids like soups and marinades. The liquid doesn’t get sucked out of the bag and interfere with the seal. Chamber sealers can also be used for vacuuming canning jars. Another major difference is that chamber sealers can use less expensive bags than external vacuum sealers. 

How You’ll Use Your Vacuum Sealer

Every outdoorsman needs a quality vacuum sealer, but not everyone is going to have the same needs. If you need a model that you can take to your fishing camp, then a portable, minimalist model is ideal. If you’re preserving a lot of food, including liquids, then a chamber sealer is a worthwhile investment. If you need a workhorse home vacuum sealer, then the FM2100 is perfect for the job. 

Vacuum Sealing Tips

• Double seal your bags
• Be gentle with vacuum-sealed food, so you don’t break the seal
• Don’t forget to label your bags

FAQs

Final Thoughts on the Best Vacuum Sealers

When I used to wrap my wild game in butcher paper, I felt like my wrapping technique was all that stood between freezer burn and my future meal. With a vacuum sealer, even when I’m still butchering at 2 a.m., I know that it’s really hard to screw up. That’s why I’d recommend all anglers and hunters own one of the best vacuum sealers. 

The post The Best Vacuum Sealers of 2023 appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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There are many reasons every hunter should know how to can venison. Aside from preserving your game, canning venison is a great method for clearing out freezer space in anticipation of next season. Also, with just a little effort, canned venison can serve as a delicious quick-and-easy lunch or dinner option. You can even take it afield for a snack while you’re sitting against a tree, waiting for a longbeard to strut by (just be careful when packing glass mason jars for the woods).

The concept of canning can be intimidating at first, but it’s actually easier than you might expect. The cost-to-entry is low. There is some necessary regular maintenance and part replacement required for canning, but that’s really no different than any other piece of hunting equipment.

In this article we will simplify everything you need to know: how to can venison to the best canned venison recipes.

Why Pressure Can Venison

The bacteria Clostridium botulinum is present all around us. It’s harmless until it’s introduced to an anaerobic environment (where there is zero oxygen), which is what happens when we can food. This Clostridium botulinum then turns into toxic spores that, if ingested, can lead to the rare but serious illness called botulism. 

You’re able to can highly acidic foods such as tomatoes or jellies in just a water bath because the combination of boiling water (212 degrees Fahrenheit) and acids in those particular foods will destroy pathogens. But for higher pH foods, like venison or any other meat, where acids will not aid in destroying botulism, the jar and the products inside must reach 241 degrees to equalize, seal, and kill and prevent pathogen growth. While boiling water will never go above 212, pressurized steam will ensure the canner and contents exceed 240 degrees, hence: pressure canning.

Choosing the Best Pressure Canner

Notice this section heading says “canner,” not “cooker.” While both a pressure canner and a pressure cooker reach high temperatures via sustained steam pressure, a cooker cannot maintain heat and pressure long enough to safely can food.

The process of canning venison is indeed a bit of a process, so I believe it makes more sense to opt for a larger yield versus repeating the steps, while making a mess, for small-batch sessions. (It’s similar to making larger batches of sausage versus one-off 2-pound piles).

I rely on the Presto 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker. It now sells for approximately $157. I also purchased 48 quart-size Ball mason jars. My 23-quart pressure canner will easily fit seven quart jars, and in each of those quart jars I can fit just under 2 pounds of venison (meaning I am able to can approximately 14 pounds of venison in one session).

If you own a glass or induction stovetop, make sure your pressure canner is compatible with such. Most are not and will potentially crack your glass stovetop.

Next, you indeed need some sort of gauge on your pressure canner to monitor pressure. Most reputable pressure canners come with one, but just make sure that yours does. These gauges come in two forms: dialed or weighted. A dialed gauge is easier to read, but requires annual check-ups, while a weighted gauge requires closer monitoring at first but no annual check-ups. (More on check-ups below).

How to Take Care of a Pressure Canner

You should regularly inspect your pressure canner prior to use. It is extremely important that you read your specific pressure canner’s instructions, since they vary from model to model. Here’s a general checklist:

• Make sure there is a rack to place at the bottom so your glass jars do not contact the heat source (which would lead to cracking of glass jars).
• Inspect the plastic lid gasket sealing ring, ensuring it is not dry or cracked. You will likely want to replace this every couple years, regardless. Make sure it is securely inserted into the lid.
• Inspect the vent pipe by holding the lid up to a light source and making sure you can clearly see through the pipe. If it looks obstructed, take an unfolded paper clip and clean out.
• If using a dialed gauge, have it checked annually (ahead of canning for the year) by taking the gauge to your local county extension office. Or you could mail into the manufacturer for testing.
• Make sure all fasteners are clean and secure.

Set aside ample time ahead of canning to make sure everything is in working order. Botulism isn’t the only thing to fear when canning. With a pressure canner, you’re dealing with hot steam under—you guessed it—pressure. Don’t risk the lid exploding off, causing damage to an exhaust fan or even injuring you, if you’re standing nearby. 

Prep Venison Before Canning

Here’s the good news: You can use any whole muscle cuts for canning. Because the canning process will also tenderize your venison, meat from the neck, front shoulder — anywhere really — serves as a great choice. If you really wanted, you could even use ground venison, though the final product may be a bit mushy since non-browned ground meat might have an unusual texture.

Here are some simple tips for prepping your venison before canning:

• Trim off silver skin, fat, and fascia. This is easier to do when the meat is partially frozen. 
• Cut into approximate 1-inch cubes.
• Season your venison as if you’re seasoning it for a stew.
• Consider cutting vegetables to can alongside your venison. You’ll basically have venison stew ready to eat.

Prep Canning Jars

I run jars through my dishwasher — with rings, lids, and jars separated — for a thorough, hot clean. I then steam after cleaning. Or, you can clean in hot water with dish soap, then leave in 180- to 200-degree steaming water until ready to can. I do recommend pat drying inside and out with a paper towel.

While you can reuse jars and their rings, I recommend using new lids for each canning session. I’d rather pay 50 cents apiece for each wide-mouth lid than risk an improper seal.

How to Can Venison

This process will both cook and tenderize your venison cubes, resulting in a beef-stew-like flavor and texture (remember, read the owner’s manual for your specific canner).

1. Add venison (and vegetables) to jar, leaving at least half an inch — and no more than 1 inch — between contents and top. Add less than a 1/4 cup of beef or chicken stock for a quart-size jar (perhaps a couple tablespoons for a pint-size jar). Your meat will create its own juices during pressure canning.
2. Run a small, thin rubber spatula or butter knife, around edges of jar to help work out any air bubbles.
3. Using a clean warm, damp towel, wipe away any residue from rims. You want them very clean to ensure a proper seal.
4. Add lid and finger-tighten ring overtop. Do not overtighten, as air needs to escape via these edges.
5. Add canning rack to pressure canner, along with 3 quarts of hot water and 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar (which will help prevent residue build-up).
6. Carefully place jars in the canner with ample space between each jar, as space is necessary for heat and pressure to properly seal jars and kill pathogens. For recommended number of jars and to know whether you can double-stack jars with a second rack, review your owner’s manual.
7. Add pressure canner lid and line up arrows to properly secure the lid. Place canner on a burner over high heat. Do not add the pressure regulator yet. Once the cover locking pin engages and a steady stream of steam is shooting out of the vent pipe, set a timer for 10 minutes.
8. After 10 minutes, add the pressure regulator. If using weighted gauges, this is when you add the weights.
9. Let pressure build. If at higher elevations where air pressure will vary compared to sea level, pressure inside the canner will also vary. Review your owner’s manual to determine how long you need to can meat based on your elevation.
10. Once the pressure reads 12 psi (or your weighted gauges are shaking violently), turn down your burner to medium-low or low. You will need to monitor and adjust your burner at first so the pressure maintains a 12 psi or your weighted gauges rock consistently and fairly gently.
11. Ensuring a steady 12 psi or consistent weighted-gauge rocking pattern, set a timer for 90 minutes (double-check this time via your owner’s manual). Pressure must maintain throughout this time, so you may wish to check in intermittently. If pressure dips below recommended psi, you will have to start over.
12. After 90 minutes at proper pressure, turn off the heat. Do not remove the regulator yet. Allow pressure to drop.
13. Once the pressure reaches zero, remove the regulator. Allow the canner to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the lid.
14. Using a canning jar lifter or insulated kitchen towel, remove the jars and set on a wooden cutting board or folded towel so jars can cool. Do not place on stove or any other warm surface, as this could cause the glass jars to shatter.
15. Allow the jars to cool for 24 hours. During this time, you will notice bubbles and air continuing to escape. You may hear a pop, if you’re nearby. This is the jars sealing themselves.

How to Check if Canned Venison Is Sealed

There should be a concave look to the lid and zero give when you press down. Whereas before you could pop the lid for an audible noise, you should not be able to do so now. If you can press down on the lid and have it spring back up, your jar did not seal properly. Place it in the fridge and try to eat the venison within the next few days, or remove its contents and freeze. Do not freeze the glass jars since they’ll likely bust inside your freezer.

To open a properly sealed jar, you will likely need a spoon or the base of a fork or butter knife to pry open the lid. 

How Long Does Canned Venison Last?

The short, safe answer: upwards of two years if stored in a cool, dark place, like the back of your cupboard. For whatever reason, two years seems to be the standard response for any sustained preservation—whether freezing or canning. Right now I have canned venison in my cupboard from almost three years ago. I still plan to eat it. Some sources, such as the USDA, suggest most shelf-stable foods are safe indefinitely as long as the can itself remains in good condition. Another USDA article suggests meat will keep its best quality for upwards of five years.

When in doubt, open and smell. Trust your nose. If still in doubt, toss it.

READ NEXT: Deer Jerky Recipe

Canned Venison Recipes

I’ve found it best to keep canned venison recipes very simple. As mentioned earlier, the contents of the jar will have the flavor and texture of beef stew. If you added vegetables, you should be able to simply dump into a bowl, heat in the microwave and enjoy. It may need a little bit of salt and pepper, but that is about it.

Or you can warm up a favorite Indian sauce or marinara and add your canned venison to it (drain the venison jar liquids before doing so). 

You can also sear your canned venison with some onions and bell peppers, top with cheese, and make an improvised Italian venison sandwich. When it comes to canned venison, if you can dream it, you can make it happen.

Find the author on Instagram @WildGameJack with any questions or comments.

The post How to Can Venison appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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Of all the critters in the South, the American alligator might be the most intimidating to clean and cook. Most wild game cooks living in bayou country know their way around squirrels, frogs, deer, snakes, hogs, turtles, and even giant swamp rats. But give them a 12-foot bull gator, and some might hesitate before taking a knife to it.

Others, like Chef Rick Mace, go out of their way to procure alligators. They know from experience that gator meat is delicious when properly prepared, and they’ve developed their own alligator recipes over the years. Mace also knows procuring gator meat is most of the adventure.

Last week, the South Florida chef joined forces with the Python Cowboy and two other friends to track down a massive, 12-plus-foot alligator that was deemed a threat to local livestock in Martin County. A lifelong hunter, Mace also wanted to show the entire process of hunting, processing, and serving an alligator. The group filmed each of these steps, and he plans to publish the whole field-to-fork episode on his restaurant’s social media channels.

“As a chef, it’s very rare that you get a chance to connect the dots and show people the progression from the field to the finished product,” Mace tells Outdoor Life. “For us to be able to go out and source the alligator and show that hunt, and then follow that up with a video on how we make our sausage … it was definitely something that we wanted to bring full circle.”

Mace, who co-owns Tropical Smokehouse in West Palm Beach, says he should be able to get around a thousand of his signature hot links out of the gator. But since regulations don’t allow restaurants to serve hunter-harvested meat, he’ll have to share all that alligator sausage with friends instead of his customers.

“I still wanted to tell that story, though, and it was more about the whole utility of it,” Mace says. “We’ll be able to get a mount done for the restaurant, and we’re getting the leather tanned and everything.”

As for the meat itself, Mace was willing to share a few of his favorite alligator recipes, along with some tips for cleaning and cooking gators.

What Does Alligator Meat Taste Like?  

Most people compare alligator meat to chicken, but Mace doesn’t think that’s entirely accurate. Their tail meat does look similar to a chicken breast, but most swamp-food aficionados will tell you it has a more distinct, almost fishy flavor to it.

Mace says the chicken comparison likely stems from the fact both animals have white and dark meat. But if he had to choose one animal for comparison’s sake, it would be snapping turtle.

“Alligator has more in common with snapping turtle than anything else I’ve ever worked with,” Mace explains. “A turtle has the same kind of white meat in its neck that a gator has in its tail. But the legs have darker, tougher meat that has to be cooked through pretty thoroughly.”

What Is the Most Popular Alligator Recipe?

If you’ve ever tried alligator, chances are you’ve eaten gator tail that’s been cubed, seasoned, and deep fried. Fried gator tail is far and away the most popular alligator recipe, and it’s served in restaurants and bars throughout the South.

“Everyone is most familiar with the tail meat because it’s the most plentiful,” Mace says. “That tail meat is kind of tough though because it has all that connective tissue. It’s basically the gator’s propeller, so it does a lot of work and has a lot of silver skin.”

Read Next: The Best Tasting Fish Species You’ve Probably Never Eaten

Fried gator tail done right is tender and juicy. The key with this alligator recipe, according to Mace, is to trim as much silver skin and fat as possible. As with other wild game, it’s also important not to overcook it.

“People tend to fry the hell out of the stuff. If you fry gator tail, it should get very lightly fried to the point where it’s just cooked through like fish.”

What Are the Other Cuts on an Alligator?

The alligator recipe book doesn’t end with the tail, however. The way Mace processes the critters, he says there are three other primary cuts or meat types on a gator: the legs, the “jelly rolls,” and the jowls.

The legs provide a darker, reddish meat. They’re a little fattier than the tail with shorter muscle grains. Because gator legs can toughen when cooked, Mace typically prepares these low and slow. He’ll often use them as a replacement for chicken thighs in a gumbo.

“Another cut is the two tenderloins on the underside of the tail,” Mace says. “They call these the ‘jelly rolls.’”

These cuts start at the base of the gator’s tail (near the animal’s cloaca) and go a short distance toward the tip of the tail. The jelly rolls are succulent but not particularly big cuts of meat, and Mace says those from a good-sized gator might only be about 18 inches long.

The most prized pieces of alligator meat, according to Mace, are the jowls. He compares these to grouper cheeks, which are sweet, tender, and packed with flavor.

“Local guys who grow up harvesting gators, they look for these [two cuts] first,” Mace says. “They’ll marinate the jowls and jelly rolls and grill them for themselves. Then they’ll share the tail and leg meat with others.”

Tips for Cooking Alligator

As with most game animals, bigger isn’t always better when it comes to edibility. Bigger alligators—and especially the big males—are often tougher, and they take a little more effort to prepare.

“It’s the same thing if you shoot a big, old rutty buck. It’s not always the best eating,” Mace says. “What looks good on the wall doesn’t necessarily taste the best on the plate.”

There are some steps cooks can take to make a massive bull gator more palatable, however. And Mace says it all starts with the processing.

Read Next: The 10 Best Tasting Wild Game Animals

“Taking your time when cleaning them, that’s so critical. If you take something and debone it, and then clean every scrap of connective tissue and fat so you can get to the actual lean meat, that’s always a better product.”

Mace’s other go-to trick for turning tough and stringy gators into tasty table fare is making sausage. He says that seasoning the alligator meat, grinding it, and mixing it with fatty pork is “the perfect foil” for bigger gators. This is how Mace makes his signature BBQ hot links, which are now a staple at Tropical Smokehouse.

Chef Mace’s Signature Alligator Recipes

Tropical Smokehouse Alligator Hot Links

Sausage making always requires some specialty equipment, but an entry level setup will get you by. And if you enjoy sausage making, the investment will quickly pay for itself. The following recipe makes about nine links.

Sausage Casing:

A standard pork casing is what we use. They are easy to find nowadays. Check Amazon if your local meat counter can’t provide them for you. You will need 2-3 long pieces of casing for this recipe.

Read Next: 3 Features You Need in Your First Meat Grinder

To prepare the casings, separate the individual strands of casing and place in a bowl of water. Place the bowl in the sink and run a small amount of water through each piece to rinse and begin to rehydrate the casings so they will not be brittle for stuffing. Leave in the water until use.

Gator Meat Blend:

• 1 lb. lean beef, such as brisket trimmings
• 1 lb. fatty pork trimmings, pork jowl or belly
• 1 lb. cleaned alligator meat, preferably “red” meat from the legs

Clean all meat of excess connective tissue and dice into pieces that will feed cleanly through your meat grinder. Spread pieces of meat out onto a tray, keeping the alligator separate, and place into the freezer while preparing the remaining ingredients.

Seasoning Blend:

The seasoning blend is measured in grams for precision and also to make the formula easily scalable. As spice levels are subjective, feel free to make adjustments to your liking to the cayenne and crushed red pepper. Combine all ingredients into a small container to season the chilled meat.

• 22g kosher salt
• 5g coarse ground black pepper
• 16g smoked paprika
• 2g cayenne
• 2g crushed red pepper
• 2g nutmeg
• 7g granulated garlic
• 7g brown sugar
• 1 pinch dried thyme

Directions

1. Set up a meat grinder with two large bowls to collect the ground meat. Use a coarse grind for a more rustic textured sausage.
2. Season chilled meat with spice blend, still keeping the alligator separate, making sure all of the spice mixture is processed along with the meat.
3. Grind the alligator first, and then return to the tray with the beef and pork. Next, grind the entire meat mixture into one bowl. Place the second bowl under the grinder and grind the meat twice.
4. Mix the ground meat thoroughly with 1⁄2 cup ice water. This step will ensure even seasoning and encourage the meat to bind into a cohesive emulsion.
5. Install the stuffing attachment to the grinder, thread the casings onto the funnel, and carefully fill the casings about 85 percent full, leaving the casings slightly slack. Filling them too tightly in this step will prevent you from twisting the sausages into individual links.
6. Twist the individual sausage links to approximately 5 inches in length, you should make about nine links. Prick any air bubbles that you come across with a toothpick and squeeze the air out of the casings.
7. Place the completed links onto a sheet tray with a rack and refrigerate uncovered overnight. This will allow the casings to dry so smoke will readily adhere to them.
8. Preheat a smoker to 180F.
9. Using scissors, separate the individual links and place into the smoker, as far away from the heat source as possible.
10. Smoke until sausages are 160°F internally. Once cooked, remove, rest briefly, and serve while the casings are still crisp. If preparing sausages in advance, shock the sausages in an ice bath briefly before refrigerating. This helps them stay moist when reheating.

Sour-Orange-Glazed Smoked Alligator Wings

Serves 4-6 as a snack

Rub Ingredients

• 115g kosher salt
• 60g sugar
• 15g smoked paprika
• 30g granulated onion
• 15g granulated garlic
• 4g cayenne

Glaze Ingredients

While the alligator in in the smoker, add the following ingredients into a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed sauce pot, bring to a lazy boil, and reduce to a syrup. Reserve warm.

• 3 cup sour (Seville) orange juice or substitute regular orange juice with 1/2c lime juice added
• 1 cup honey
•  1/2 TSP salt
• 3 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1 TBS hot sauce
• 2 TBS butter

Directions

1. Preheat smoker to 300°F
2. Combine above ingredients and place in a shaker top container for easy use. Take 12 alligator wings (front legs) and season liberally with house rub. If you are planning ahead, this step can be done the night before. This allows the salt to better season the alligator meat. 
3. Place the alligator wings into the smoker in a single layer with plenty of space between each piece. 
4. Smoke alligator for 25-30 minutes, until the leg meat is cooked through and comes cleanly off of the bone when prodded with a fork. (If you haven’t made the glaze yet, do it while the meat is in the smoker)
5. Once alligator is cooked, place into a large bowl and toss with the orange glaze. Remove from the bowl and return to the smoker for 5-10 minutes to set the glaze. Then, return the alligator to the bowl and toss with the remaining orange glaze.
6. Sprinkle the drumsticks with 2 TBS toasted sesame seeds, 1/4 c chopped cilantro, 1 bunch of sliced scallions.
7. Place the gator wings in a serving vessel and spoon the remaining glaze over the top. Serve immediately.

Everglades Chili Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 oz lard
• 3 lb. alligator meat, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
• 4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 3 small onions, diced
• 6 TBS dark chili powder
• 4 cups bone broth, beef or chicken
• 1 cup masa harina
• 3 TBS white vinegar
• Kosher salt
• Black pepper
• Hot sauce

Directions

1. Melt lard in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add meat, in batches if necessary, and brown lightly, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes.

2. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, garlic, chili powder, salt, and pepper and mix well. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, then sprinkle meat mixture with masa harina. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

3. Gradually stir in broth, 4 cups warm water, and vinegar. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, stirring as needed to prevent from sticking to bottom of pot. Cook until meat is tender and begins to “melt” into sauce, about 2 hours; add water as necessary. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.

The post How to Cook a 12-Foot Gator: Alligator Recipes from a Florida Chef appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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Morels aren’t the easiest mushrooms to find. Unlike the distinct blaze orange of chanterelles, the big-bodied clouds of chicken of the woods, or the white, shaggy plumes of Lion’s mane, morel mushrooms are small, low to the ground, and camouflage easily with dirt and leaf rot. Still, everyone from spring turkey hunters to diehard foragers keep an eye out for them for a reason: They’re delicious. So once you find a few, what’s the best way to cook morel mushrooms? You could fry them in butter for a quick and tasty snack. Or you could make a meal out of them. We asked experienced foragers, cooks, and hunters to share their favorite morel mushroom recipes, along with their tips for preparing them.

Morel Mushroom Risotto

Jamie Carlson is a hunter, angler, forager, and wild food blogger from Minnesota who has published wild-game recipes and tips on Outdoor Life, as well as Modern Carnivore and Outdoor News. You can find venison, pike, turkey, and wild-rice recipes on his Instagram feed, along with foraged cocktail ingredients and his hunting and fishing photos.

“I really like risotto when it comes to morel mushroom recipes because it doesn’t take very many mushrooms to have a big impact on the flavor of the dish,” Carlson tells Outdoor Life. “If you have morel seasons like I’ve had in the past, where you only find a handful, this is a great way to make your morels go a long way and feed the whole family. This risotto uses two other great spring ingredients—ramps and nettles—and is one of my favorite springtime dishes.” 

Ingredients

• 1½ cups Arborio rice
• ½ cup chopped ramps, stems, and leaves (if you don’t have ramps, use finely diced yellow onion)
• 1/3 cup stinging nettle puree, (8 oz nettle leaves sautéed in a pan with butter and pureed in food processor)
• 6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• Morel mushrooms, as many as you have, sautéed in butter and roughly chopped to stir into your risotto
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• ½ cup white wine
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Warm your stock in a medium-sized pan over medium-low heat. You don’t need to boil it, just keep it warm. 
2. In a large sauté pan, melt the butter and olive oil together over medium heat.  Add the ramps and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes or until soft. Be careful to not burn the ramps. 
3. Stir in the rice and toast for a few minutes to coat it with butter and oil. Once the rice turns translucent, add white wine and stir, cooking until all the wine is absorbed. 
4. Ladle the stock into the rice mixture. Stir frequently, allowing the stock to absorb before adding the next ladle. 
5. When the stock is almost gone, add the nettle puree and morel mushrooms. Stir to combine. Cook to your preferred consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and enjoy. 

Asian-Inspired Chicken Thighs with Morels

Trent and Kristen Blizzard are foraging enthusiasts and founders of Modern Forager, a blog dedicated to all things mushrooms and other wild edibles. They also publish wildfire burn maps to help foragers find prime morel hunting spots. This recipe is republished with permission from their cookbook, Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide, which is full of other morel mushroom recipes, too. Forager, artist, and botanical printer Mayumi Fujio contributed this recipe to the book. She is from San Francisco and uses mushroom-based dyes and other foraged plants in her textile work.

“Morels in an Asian-inspired sauce with tender chicken thighs will become your next favorite comfort food,” Kristen says of this unique morel mushroom recipe. “You might want to double this recipe for leftovers or to share with friends!”

Ingredients

• 1/2 oz. dried morels (8 oz fresh)
• 1 lb. boneless chicken thighs
• 3 tbsp. sake, divided
• 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. potato starch
• 1 tbsp. neutral oil (like grapeseed or vegetable oil)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp. ginger, chopped
• 2 tbsp. oyster sauce
• Your choice of rice or pasta

Instructions

1. Rehydrate morels by cooking in a separate pan with soaking liquid (like water or chicken stock) for 10 to 15 minutes until liquid is gone. If using fresh morels, sauté until well cooked. 
2. Cut the chicken thighs into bite-size pieces and marinate in 1 tablespoon of sake and 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Remove after 10 minutes, put in a plastic bag, and add potato starch to coat.
3. In a wok, heat oil and then fry chicken on medium heat, add garlic and ginger and continue to stir-fry. If the chicken is not cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F, add a little water to cook thoroughly.
4. Once the chicken is cooked, add the morels.
5. Add remaining sake, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. Sauté until everything is coated. Spoon over rice or pasta. Enjoy!

Eggs Cocotte with Morels and Shrimp

Alan Bergo is a James Beard award-winning chef, cooking show host, published author, and forager with lots of experience developing morel mushroom recipes. After a battle with the harsh realities of the restaurant industry and other personal hardships (read his story here), Bergo found wild food foraging as a healing practice that reinvigorated his love for cooking. He wrote The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora: Recipes and Techniques for Edible Plants from the Garden, Field, and Forest and hosted “The Wild Harvest with Chef Alan Bergo.” He also connects with his audience through his wild food blog, Forager | Chef.

“Around the third week in May, my fridge is getting full and morels start to get eaten for any meal of the day,” Bergo says. “One of my all-time favorite morel season breakfasts is eggs baked in a creamy sauce of morel and shrimp, served with toast. It’s a modern version of a classic French dish enjoyed by Charles De Gaulle, called ‘Eggs en Cocotte aux Morilles.’ With a few fresh morels, and a couple custard dishes, you’ll have a breakfast fit for a president.” 

Ingredients

• ½ oz. dried morels (you can increase this to 1 oz if you like)
• 1 cup hot stock such as shrimp or beef, or water in a pinch
• 1 oz. plus 2 tbsp finely-chopped shallot
• Generous splash of brandy
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, separated, plus more for cooking croutons (if using)
• Pinch of flour (optional)
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 4 large or extra-large eggs
• 4 oz. raw shrimp, fresh or thawed, cut into ½ inch pieces
• Kosher salt
• Fresh-ground black pepper
• Fresh-cut chives, to taste
• Croutons (toasted strips of stale bread, fried in butter; serve 2 to 3 per person

Instructions

Dried Morel Cream
Can be made up to a day ahead of time

1. First, make the dried morel cream. Rehydrate the morels in the stock for 30 minutes, swishing them around occasionally.
2. Squeeze the morels dry, reserving the soaking liquid, then remove to a cutting board and cut into 1-inch pieces. If you suspect your morels were at all dirty/sandy, rinse them a second time quickly in a couple cups of cold water. Drain the water; keep the morels.
3. Heat one tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan, add the shallot, and cook for a minute. Add the morels and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Sprinkle the flour into the pan and mix to combine, then add the brandy and cook off.
4. Add the stock. Bring to a simmer and reduce until the pan is nearly dry. Season the mixture with a pinch of salt. Add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and allow to cool. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed until the morel cream tastes rich and delicious.

Egg and Shrimp

5. Grease 4 ramekins or other oven-safe dishes with butter, then put them in a deep, wide pot where they will all lay flat.
6. Divide the shrimp evenly between the four ramekins, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, then pour water into the pot (not in the ramekins) until the ramekins are half-submerged.
7. Bring the uncovered pot to a simmer and cook the shrimp until just starting to turn pink, about 3-4 minutes, then crack an egg into each ramekin.
8. Meanwhile, warm the morel cream to loosen it. Divide the mixture evenly between each serving dish, trying not to cover the egg yolks. 
9. Cover the pot and turn the heat to low, then set a timer for 4 minutes. Check on the eggs by gently poking the yolks—they should be runny still. (Cook them another minute if needed. When in doubt, undercook them a tiny bit.)
10. Remove the ramekins with tongs or a spatula, transfer to a plate, sprinkle with chives, and serve with the croutons on the side. Serve with steamed, buttered nettles or a side dish of other seasonal greens.

Morel Crostini with Goat Cheese and Shallot

Mike Kempenich hails from Minnesota’s Twin Cities, where he works on his direct-to-consumer wild food brand, Forest to Fork, and runs his website, The Gentleman Forager. He also offers classes on identifying, harvesting, and cooking mushrooms, guides foraging trips, and offers catering services. He has perfected many morel mushroom recipes over his career.

“The subtle hints of thyme and shallot, the tanginess of goat cheese, and the added crunch of the crostini make this a spectacular treat for friends and family,” Kempenich says. “Enjoy!”

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. fresh morels or 8 oz. of dried morels
• 8 tbsp. salted butter
• 1 ½ cups finely diced shallot
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 8 oz. goat cheese crumbles
• 2 baguettes, sliced into ½-inch rounds

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Slice your baguettes into ½-inch rounds to make the crostini. Place all the rounds on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, or until they are firm and toasted.
2. While your crostini are baking, clean the morels thoroughly. Run them under water sufficient to force any grit from the honeycomb-like caps. If you are using dried morels, place them in a salad spinner, fill the spinner with water and vigorously agitate them as you would a head of lettuce. Repeat this process 2 to 3 times until the water you discard appears mostly clean.
3. Give a rough chop to your mushrooms, maybe 1- to 2-inch pieces, and set aside to drain any excess moisture.
4. Place a large pan on medium-high heat and, when the pan is hot, add all your mushrooms. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes and allow the moisture of the mushrooms to be released. When your mushrooms have released most of their liquid either pour the liquid off and reserve for later use, or cook off the liquid in the pan. Remove the morels and set aside.
5. Add 4 tablespoons of butter and let melt, then add the shallot and sauté until translucent and slightly caramelized. When your shallot is done, add the mushrooms back to your pan and add the thyme, salt, and pepper, stirring the pan to evenly distribute for 2 to 4 minutes.
6. Add the goat cheese crumbles and the remaining butter, and allow the heat to melt the cheese and butter and fully incorporate with the mushrooms. This should take another 3 to 5 minutes.
7. Spoon the mushroom mixture onto the crostini and serve.

Grouse Breasts in Morel Cream Sauce

The woods of western Montana provide much more than just morel mushrooms for Noah Davis. A lifelong hunter, angler, and forager originally from Pennsylvania, Davis spent years working for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation before just recently joining the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership as the communications manager for their Western Conservation branch. (Davis is also a freelance writer and poet whose debut anthology, Of This River, published in 2020.)

“I’ve always been drawn to small streams. In the spring, I follow the water to trout eagerly looking up for dry flies as wildflowers color the bank. It’s on these days that I find myself scrambling and crawling to the next hole, searching for a casting window when suddenly and unexpectedly, like all good gifts, I find morels next to my hand,” Davis writes. “After the summer months of fish fade into fall, I hike those same small streams looking for ruffed grouse. If I’m lucky, and don’t flinch too violently when the bird thunders from the thick alders, I’ll retrieve the still-warm body on the bank after a quick shot and remember what offerings the stream has given me in such a short year.

“The culmination of this place is what makes grilled grouse breasts in a cream and morel sauce one of my favorite morel mushroom recipes. So many seasons in one mouthful.”

Ingredients

• 2 ruffed grouse breasts
• 10 dehydrated morels (or more, go crazy!)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup sherry
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 2 tsp. crushed rosemary
• Flour to dust breasts
• Salt and pepper for taste

Instructions

1. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and rosemary onto the grouse breasts, then dust in flour. Melt two tablespoons of butter in a skillet over medium heat and cook the grouse breasts until golden brown on both sides. Remove meat from the skillet.
2. Add shallots to the pan and cook until soft. 
3. Add remaining butter to the pan and morels. Fry for one minute.
4. Add sherry to deglaze the pan and cook off the alcohol.
5. Pour in heavy whipping cream and reduce by half.
6. Add the breasts back into the pan to warm through. Salt and pepper to taste, then serve over roasted potatoes or rice.

Tips for Foraging and Cooking Morel Mushrooms

There are a few common rules and guidelines when it comes to being a sustainable morel forager and a good cook. Keep these tips in mind from your first mushroom hunt of the season through your last bite of these morel mushroom recipes.

• Don’t eat morel mushrooms raw. Soak and dry them before cooking them thoroughly. All those little nooks and crannies in the caps can conceal bugs and grit, so it’s best to clean them as well as possible. But more importantly, cooking morels makes them safe to eat. Like many wild mushrooms, morels possess toxins that can cause varying degrees of gastric upset. If you don’t cook those toxins before eating a morel, the consequences can range from a stomach ache to locking yourself in the bathroom for hours on end.

• If you come across a big patch of morels, don’t take them all. It can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of finding the motherlode. More traditional foragers will tell you to take a third of what you see, or to only take what you need.

Read Next: 12 Tips for Finding More Morel Mushrooms This Spring

• You can cut or pull morels out of the ground. The long-held idea that pulling a whole morel out of the ground is bad for the next harvest (as opposed to cutting it at the stem) appears to be a myth. This article points out that leaving behind the “stump” of a morel just creates a small spot for bacteria and bugs to take over. 

• Use a basket or a mesh bag to carry your morels. The holes in your carrying bag will allow morel spores to spread as you forage. This will ensure there will be more than enough in the future. A basket or mesh bag also helps the morels breathe and lets dirt fall away.

• No morel mushroom recipe beats sautéing them in butter and sprinkling with a pinch of salt. This is the best way to let the rich flavor of morel mushrooms shine.

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If you’re ordering beef at a restaurant, you can expect the question: “How would you like that cooked?” Maybe you’re the type who wants a bloody steak. Maybe you prefer a burger that could have been a hockey puck in a former life. But when it comes to deciding on the perfect internal temp for venison, there are primarily two schools of thought. Cook venison to a lower internal temperature for superior taste and flavor, or cook it to a higher temperature to follow food safety guidelines.

• Government agencies recommend cooking venison to an internal temp of 160 degrees.
• Wild game chefs recommend cooking venison to an internal temp of 120 to 130 degrees.

There are a lot of differences between beef from a USDA-certified cow and venison from a whitetail with a tag taped around its leg. One main difference is that ranchers have more control over their livestock. Hunters lack that same control over wild-harvested venison. Most hunters can agree that we much prefer it this way. But that also means we have little control over—and awareness of—what that deer was exposed to during its lifecycle. That includes certain diseases and parasites. This is where cooking temperature comes into play. Unsurprisingly, food safety experts and chefs don’t exactly agree on what temperature is best.

How hot you choose to cook your venison will depend on how you prefer to balance the risk of getting sick from eating rarer meat with the pressing demands of your tastebuds. Some hunters take the “better safe than sorry” approach and cook their deer to well-done. For others, the choice is obvious: a perfect backstrap medallion beats the relatively small risk of getting sick.

To help you make that call, we researched state and federal guidelines. Then we asked some wild-game chefs to get an idea of what the perfect internal temp for venison is in the real world.

What Internal Temperature Should You Cook Venison To?

Government agencies all recommend the same internal temperature for cooking wild game from rabbit to venison. For safety reasons, officials say you should cook venison to a minimum internal temp of 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which is considered “well-done.” 

What Venison Cooking Temperature Does the Government Recommend?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plainly states: “Whole cuts and ground meat from wild game animals should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F.” But until a few years ago, the USDA said the same thing about beef. In 2020 the agency updated its guidelines for the safe minimum temperature of beef. They did so by reducing the recommendation from 160 degrees to 145 degrees, with three minutes of rest time after removing the meat from the heat source. (Those three minutes of rest time are supposed to get the internal temperature up to 160 degrees anyway, so the CDC’s end-goal for red meat hasn’t exactly changed.)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gives guidelines for “rabbit and venison, wild or farm-raised” in their internal temperature cooking chart. That number sits squarely at 160 degrees with no rest period.

As you work down the HHS list, which is designed to significantly reduce the risk of foodborne illness (more on this later), you’ll discover a bleak world. Eggs over hard forever? No more sushi or ceviche? No more cold pepperoni pizza on a Saturday morning? Thanks, but no thanks. To be clear, we’re not advising you to eat your food undercooked. But if you’re willing to risk cold leftovers (seriously, the HHS advises that you heat all leftover food to a minimum temperature of 165 degrees), you might reconsider your stance on medium-rare venison.

The Best Internal Temp for Venison, According to Chefs and Hunters

These government guidelines for the minimum internal temp for venison begs the question: When is the last time you ate a well-done venison steak? Did you enjoy it? Wild game chefs recommend something very different when it comes to cooking deer meat.

For those who prefer a tender, rare-to-medium-rare muscle cut like a backstrap or tenderloin, wild game experts prefer an internal temperature of around 120 to 130 degrees for venison.

“I like 125 to 130,” says Michael Pendley, the author of Timber to Table recipes for RealTree. “It’s going to pick up a couple more degrees when you take it off the grill, out of the oven, or off the skillet. So I generally stop pretty rare on whole cuts. It’s safe past around 125” degrees.

Brooks Hansen is a lifelong hunter and the media relations and PR manager for Camp Chef, a company that specializes in cookware and knowledge-sharing for the meat-obsessed. 

“If you’re doing a muscle meat, like a backstrap or a steak or a tenderloin, that thing needs to be cooked hot and fast,” Hansen says. “I pull it out around 120 to 125 degrees and then let it rest for about 10 to 15 minutes. I know that’s probably not the USDA recommendation, but medium-rare is 120 degrees on prime rib, so it’s 120 to 130 degrees on venison.”

If you’re trying to sell a non-hunting buddy on a bite of venison steak, it’s crucial to keep those muscle cuts tender and at least pink in the middle. According to Hansen, the public’s general aversion to the flavor of venison might be born from the tendency to overcook it.

“Venison got a bad rep for a long time because people said it tasted ‘muttony’ or ‘gamey,’ and it was kind of gray,” Hansen says. “But the main component of that was overcooked muscle meat. So there are certain cuts that are meant to go hot and fast. But people take these hot and fast cuts and overcook them because they were nervous about having any type of red or undercooked wild game.”

Does Cooking Venison Make It Safer to Eat?

The very reason we cook meat is to kill bacteria that might have emerged on the meat’s surface while it was exposed to air in temperatures above 40 degrees. So the short answer is yes, cooking the surface of a venison steak makes it safer to eat. But what does that mean for the internal temp of the venison? People seem to misunderstand is how safe the unexposed bites of a muscle cut really are.

“When you cook a whole muscle, there’s no contamination of any kind on the inside of that muscle,” explains Pendley. “When it sears on the outside, even cooked rare, the heat kills any contamination that might be on the outside of the muscle, making it safe.”

But Pendley also raises an important distinction. If you’re grinding venison, that changes the perfect internal temperature just slightly. (This practice is consistent with the HHS’ general approach to different types of meat, which recommends an internal temp of 145 degrees for beef cuts, but 160 degrees for ground meat of any kind.)

“When you grind the meat, of course you’re blending all that [surface area] up. You have what used to be the exterior of the meat now ground inside,” he says. “So on ground meat, I like to go a little warmer, up to 145 on my [venison] burger. I still won’t go well-done. I’m naturally against well-done venison. But 145 degrees kills just about everything that might be a problem.”

Government officials seem to think game meat is more dangerous than beef. But when it comes to burgers, Hansen feels more comfortable with less-cooked game burgers than beef burgers.

“I think you can be a lot more liberal with ground venison than with ground domestic beef. You really don’t know where it’s been. You don’t know the process, how long it was ground or exposed,” Hasnen explains. “With ground beef, you want to make sure it’s all the way to 160 [degrees]. But ground venison, I think you’re okay to go 10 degrees or more lower than that. I like a good medium to medium-rare burger. Especially if it’s meat you ground yourself and you know exactly what it’s been through.”

Keep Venison Cool Before Cooking

Refrigeration technology has come a long way since the days of root cellars and ice boxes. But with the power of keeping the ambient temperature in your refrigerator set exactly how you want it comes the responsibility of not letting raw meat sit out on a countertop—or out in the field—for hours on end. 

There are some easy tips to follow to make sure you don’t spoil the meat before you even start breaking down the carcass, and risk foodborne illness later. Assuming you get everything cooled, butchered, and packaged in a clean and timely manner, the next place you must actively try to avoid contamination is in the kitchen. 

As soon as the surface temperature of a piece of meat exceeds 40 degrees, bacteria starts to grow. In certain conditions, a bacterial colony can double in size in just 20 minutes. If you’re thawing or marinating venison, keep it in the refrigerator. In a pinch, you can defrost a package of venison in a bowl of water or even in the microwave, but make sure you’re cooking the meat as soon as possible. Otherwise, you brought it within the danger zone extra fast just to let bacteria form.

Does Cooking Venison Get Rid of Parasites?

This seems to be one of the more common concerns among diners who are less familiar with game meat preparation. They might have visions of microscopic worms wriggling through a cooked backstrap, alive and happy because the chef decided to serve the dish rare. But here’s the flaw in that logic: If meat is infected with something dangerous, it’s probably quite obvious.

“If there’s parasites, you’re going to see them long before you start cooking. As you butcher the animal and pull the steaks out, if there were a parasite or odd bacteria, you’ll see it,” Hansen says. “I came across a whole hindquarter that had white larvae in it. I wasn’t comfortable eating it, but the rest of that deer was more than edible. If there’s an off color to the meat, or an off-smell, those are some red flags to watch for. But for the most part, venison is so lean and smells so delicious.”

For the really parasite-wary, Pendley recommends getting the internal temp of your venison up to medium, since any parasites that might infest the meat (and sneak past the person butchering and preparing the meat) don’t really have a chance of surviving beyond that temperature. This is a good route to take if you’re concerned about toxoplasmosis, a microscopic parasite that can pass to humans through consumption of many different kinds of meat. (This is the same parasite that’s known to lurk in litter boxes.) Lots of people with toxoplasmosis don’t have symptoms, and an estimated 11 percent of the U.S. population over six years old carries it. 

“Cooking venison to 145 degrees kills just about everything that might be a problem,” says Pendley. “With wild hogs and bear, you have the possibility of trichinosis. But with venison, you really don’t have those issues.”

As Pendley says, trichinosis is a parasite that tends to affect wild game that eats meat, like black bears and wild hogs. You can contract trichinosis by eating undercooked meat that contains the parasite, and that’s why both government agencies and wild game chefs recommend hunters follow the internal temperature guidelines for bear and wild hog meat. But deer are herbivores, and therefore not considered at risk of transmitting trichinosis to hunters. So you incur much less risk from parasites by cooking your venison to a lower temperature.

Can Cooking Venison Get Rid of CWD?

But what about other wildlife diseases? Parasites or no parasites, what if the animal is sick and we can’t tell? This is where the internal venison temperature debate tends to reach its conclusion. As far as we know, humans cannot currently contract CWD from deer and there has yet to be a recorded example of CWD jumping to humans. Therefore you probably won’t get sick from eating venison of a deer that was infected with CWD. Even so, you should not eat venison from a CWD-positive deer, advises the CDC. That’s because no amount of cooking can eliminate CWD in a piece of venison. 

CWD is a prion disease that impacts the neurological tissues and nervous system of an infected animal. It’s not another bug or bacteria that a good sear can take care of. Prions can exist in soil for years and, as the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership puts it, “because they are not alive, CWD prions cannot be killed.”

That’s enough for some hunters to religiously test their animals and not eat meat from any that test positive. If you’re concerned about CWD and venison, your best bet is to test your deer after your hunt and before cooking any of the meat. (Hunters in certain CWD-positive areas are required to do this by law anyway.) If you get a positive test, don’t eat the meat. If you get a negative test, cook your venison steak however you want.

Can You Eat Venison Raw?

If the risk of parasites or bacteria don’t concern you, then you might be interested in trying raw or near-raw venison. Dishes like carpaccio (thin-sliced raw meat like beef or tuna) and tartare (seasoned and chopped raw meat) are considered delicacies, and properly processed venison can be relatively safe for preparing these dishes. If you’ve been the one handling your deer meat from field-dressing to the kitchen, then you’re the best judge to decide. 

“I wouldn’t recommend it because I don’t want to get in trouble, and my wife and kids think I’m crazy,” Hansen says. “But yeah, every time I butcher a deer, after it’s hung and dry-aged, I’ll be cleaning it up and I’ll snack a little. I’ve done it for years, and I think the draw is that I want to see exactly what it tastes like” before I cook any of it.

If you aren’t quite ready to slice off a raw piece of backstrap and sample it, Pendley recommends a quick sear on the outside before preparing your raw venison dish. 

“Say you want steak tartare. A good way to do that is to get a super hot skillet and sear the surface all over. That would kill any contaminants that might be on the surface, but still let you experience the cold center,” he says. “You could even just take a blow torch and sear the outside.”

Clearing Up the Venison Internal Temp Debate

Venison fans know that the best meat preparations usually don’t involve a 160-degree internal temperature, even though that’s what government agencies deem safe to eat. Unless the cut is spending a full day soaking in its own juices in a slow cooker or crackling in a smoker and breaking down to “pull-with-a-fork” status, it’s tough to ignore how delicious a pink-to-red center tastes. And even if your venison is ground, maybe you’re the type to take some liberties with internal temperature that you wouldn’t with a beef burger from the grocery store. Who is anyone to stop you?

But ultimately, you won’t enjoy a meal if you aren’t comfortable eating it. If a higher internal temp brings you more peace of mind, then leave your venison steak on the grill for another minute. Either way, wild game chefs say venison preparation should always complement the flavors of the meat, rather than try to cover them up. That’s why Pendley’s hands-down favorite preparation on a muscle cut is salt, pepper, and an extremely hot grill for just a few minutes. Hansen also wants the venison flavor to be front-and-center in the meat that he cooks.

Read Next: Venison Facts Amid the Lion Diet TikTok Craze and World Carnivore Month

“When people are like ‘Try this deer, you can’t even tell it’s deer, it doesn’t taste like deer,’ I’m like ‘Woah.’ That’s defeating the purpose,” Hansen says. “We shouldn’t need to wrap it in four strips of bacon and soak it in cream of mushroom soup to mask the delicious flavor of venison. If it’s cooked right, it’s amazing.” 

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It’s an interesting time in the world of meat. Last month popular TikTok personalities began promoting the lion diet—eating nothing but ruminant animals and salt—which prompted a flurry of news stories. This month, Joe Rogan, the biggest podcaster in America, is posting about World Carnivore Month, which is a “month during which anyone with experience of choosing a meat-only diet aims to bring more attention to their lifestyle and diet,” according to carnivorestyle.com.

With all of this attention on red meat, more and more folks are becoming interested in venison. As hunters, we all know the general benefits of wild venison: it’s lean, it tastes good, and it comes from a critter that hasn’t been fed supplemental hormones. But amid all the excitement over the other red meat, it seems that plenty of misconceptions and misunderstandings are cropping up.

I’m not a food scientist, but I am a deer hunter who’s eaten venison ever since I’ve had teeth to chew it with. I’m also recovering from Alpha Gal, and venison is one of the few mammal meats I can eat (because of its lower fat content), so I eat a ton of it. Here are a few venison nutrition facts, plus facts about wild deer meat that I hope bring some gravity to the current meat craze.

Venison Is Good for You

Eating venison might not turn you into a shredded super predator, but it is a healthy choice for meat eaters. According to Penn State University: “Venison is high in essential amino acids and in addition, a rich source of thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, iron, and zinc. Venison meat is a perfect choice of protein for those who suffer from cardiovascular disease and are searching for low cholesterol and saturated fat protein choices.”

Just three ounces of venison contains 96 calories 3 grams of fat, and 18 grams of protein. Put plainly, venison is “rich.” Which is why you might find yourself eating a smaller serving of backstrap than you would when digging into a beef steak.

Venison Is Leaner Than Beef

One of the health issues with gobbling down red meat is the amount of saturated fats they contain. But because deer are surviving in the wild and eating a somewhat wild diet (more on this later) their meat is leaner than domestic beef. “A 4-ounce serving of beef flank steak has more than 9 grams of total fat, and nearly 4 of those grams are saturated. Venison contains 3 grams of total fat and only 1 of those grams is saturated,” according to a report in SFGate.

Most Wild Venison Is Probably Not Organic

When people get to promoting the benefits of eating wild game, they often fall back on buzz terms like “free-range” and “organic.” These terms have become shorthand for saying a certain type of food is superior to its non-organic counterpart. But there are real standards for organic produce and livestock, even if most people don’t know what they are. One of the requirements is that “producers must feed livestock agricultural feed products that are 100 percent organic,” which means no synthetic herbicides. In other words, in order for meat to be organic the animal can’t be fed anything that was sprayed with Roundup. Since Roundup is still extremely popular in commercial farming (and habitat management work), there’s a very good chance that any whitetail deer you kill has eaten corn or beans that were sprayed with herbicide. Sure, there are some exceptions for deer that are killed deep in the Northwoods, far from agricultural land. But since whitetails thrive in edge habitat and agricultural lands and their home ranges span several hundred acres, most of the whitetails we harvest and consume will have eaten non-organic crops. That’s not to say that venison is somehow tainted. It’s just not a perfectly pure meat as some folks like to claim.

Despite Chronic Wasting Disease, Venison Is Safe

On the other end of the spectrum, there are many folks who worry about Chronic Wasting Disease in venison. And if you read the CDC web page on the subject, you’d have reasons to be nervous. Guidelines include: “Minimize how much you handle the organs of the animal” and “If you have your deer or elk commercially processed, consider asking that your animal be processed individually to avoid mixing meat from multiple animals.”

However, there has never been a documented case of a human becoming infected with CWD. Chronic wasting disease has spread through most of deer country, and most hunters who harvest deer do not get their animals tested (though they should), so an untold number of people have eaten CWD infected meat without any documented consequences. In one infamous case, a CWD infected deer was fed to a few hundred people during a banquet in 2005 (they found out only after the banquet that the deer was CWD positive). About 80 of those people agreed to a health monitoring program, and over the course of six years it was determined that the participants had “no significant changes in health conditions.” CWD is a serious wildlife disease. It’s the biggest threat to deer in America. But it hasn’t jumped the species barrier, at least not yet. That said, any state game agency would suggest not eating meat that is known to be infected with CWD.

The Experts Want You to Overcook Venison (for Safety)

I was surprised and appalled that organizations from my home state of Minnesota suggest cooking the hell out of venison. The University of Minnesota Extension recommends cooking venison steaks to 145 degrees. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture recommends cooking venison to at least 165 degrees to kill bacteria. That’s beyond medium rare. I pull my steaks when they hit an internal temperature of 135ish, and then that temp typically creeps up a few degrees while resting. I’ve never had an issue, and neither have any of the other hunters I know. That said, it’s possible to get salmonella and other illnesses from venison, but those cases are pretty rare. The best thing you can do is use good gutting and butchering practices. Keep the meat, your tools, and your hands clean and you’ll be just fine.

You Can’t Buy the Real Thing

The venison you see at fancy grocery stores or at expensive restaurants is not the same type of venison you’d find in a hunter’s freezer. Much of the store-bought or restaurant-served venison is actually farmed red stag from New Zealand. Under the Lacey Act, it’s illegal to sell wild game meat, so wild deer meat isn’t hitting the shelves anywhere in the United States.

Not All of Us Can Be Lions

If you want the real thing, you have to get out there and hunt it (or have a generous hunter give it to you). But Americans eat more than 200 pounds of meat per year on average (that’s including beef, pork, and poultry). Just for the sake of argument, let’s say we all switched to only venison for our source of meat. That would mean we’d need about 3 deer per American adult per year. Unfortunately, there are a lot more people (about 209 million) than there are whitetail deer (about 30 million) in this country. So it would take us less than a year to eat all of the nation’s whitetails, not to mention elk, pronghorns, and mule deer.

It’s simply unfeasible for most Americans to survive on venison alone (or even have it become a major part of their diet). So for those of us who do eat venison for the majority of our meals, we should do our best to enjoy every bite.

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One of the most frequent questions hunters ask me is how to cook venison, cut by cut. The answer to that question depends not only on the cut, but also your cooking abilities and dish preferences. Which means this cut-by-cut guide is going to be tailored to my culinary tastes, and how I break down my deer.

This is by no means the only way to butcher and cook your cuts, but this is how I get the best results when using the whole deer. There are also some useful guidelines below on how to cook venison—regardless of individual preferences—that will hopefully keep folks from attempting to grill shanks or stew backstrap. We’ll start with the neck and then work our way down the deer.

Cook a Venison Neck Roast

The neck is a giant pain in the ass. It is possible, with a lot of practice to de-bone the neck and make a beautiful neck roast. You could also make a bone-in neck roast. Or you could do what most people do, and cut as much away from the bone as possible and grind it all up. Deboning a neck takes skill and time. Ideally, everyone should give it a try on each deer they shoot, if only to practice and hone their knife skills.

Even if you mess it up the first few times, you can still grind all the meat so none of it goes to waste. If and when you do master the art of de-boning a neck roast, you’re in for a treat. There’s good amount of connective tissue in the neck, and slowly cooking it for several hours will result in one of the best pot-roast-style cuts on the animal.

How to Make Venison Sausage

The front shoulders are the source for most of my ground venison. On really big deer you can get some nice blade steaks off the front shoulders, but I usually just grind everything on the front legs. I like to make all my own sausages, and my wife really likes plenty of ground venison to cook with instead of ground beef. Although I think a lot of people get stuck in a culinary box when it comes to ground venison, it’s actually one of the most versatile things to have in your freezer.

Pretty much anything you could cook with ground beef, pork, or lamb will accommodate a venison substitute, including an endless amount of fresh and smoked sausages. I’ve used it in all varieties of dishes, from lasagna to pot stickers.

Just remember that venison doesn’t have the fat content that domestic animals have. If you are going to make burgers, you need to add fat to the meat you grind, mix in some ground beef to the venison patties, or cook your burger medium-rare. If you overcook ground venison in a burger or meatballs, it dries out terribly and produces an off-putting grainy texture.

How to Cook Venison Shanks

Deer shanks have become my favorite part of the animal. Unfortunately, many people grind the shanks or—even worse—throw them out because they don’t know how to cook them. The shanks are full of connective tissue and sinew, and if you don’t know how to cook them, they end up tougher than shoe leather. But if you treat them to liquid and low heat for long periods of time, you’ll be rewarded with incredibly tender and succulent meat.

Osso Bucco is one dish that highlights this. Cutting the shanks into 3-inch sections and leaving the bone-in is one way to cut the shank. My favorite way to prepare them is to cut all the meat off the bone and into 1-inch cubes. I use this meat in all my stews. That sinew and connective tissue melts out of the meat, adding richness to your stew and helping thicken the liquid you are cooking.

How to Cook Venison Backstraps

I think it is safe to say this is most people’s favorite part of the deer. Easily grilled or fried in a pan, backstrap lends itself to quick and simple preparations. A lot of folks I know like to cut the straps into chops and grill them, but this often doesn’t work for me. Those little chops cook so fast they often end up overcooked. To control that a little better, I leave my backstraps in large chunks. I usually cut each whole strap into three pieces, which leaves me six pieces. Then I package them into two chunks per package for family grilling.

There are several methods for cooking a good backstrap and—at the risk of offending folks—none of them involve wrapping it in bacon. One of my favorite ways to cook them is seared in a pan with a bourbon cream sauce. There are several other methods out there for getting perfectly cooked meat. Perhaps nothing is more precise than the sous vide method, but that requires special equipment and can be time consuming, easy though it is. If you have a smoker or an oven, the reverse sear is another method that will give you wonderful results.

Venison Tenderloin Recipes: Keep It Simple

I won’t spend a lot of time on the tenderloins: they are the smallest portion of the deer and, in my opinion, highly overrated. They are typically too small to feed the family and are, at best, one meal for myself. They’re tender, yes, but no more flavorful than any other part of the deer. I will usually eat them while I’m butchering the deer. I cook them simply, just seared in butter with a little garlic, salt, and pepper. Because they are small and very tender, they do lend themselves to wok-style cooking: high heat and cooked very fast.

How to Prep Ribs

The ribs are an interesting part of the animal. I don’t do anything special with them, though—I always cut as much meat off the ribs as possible and through it in my grind pile. But that doesn’t mean you can’t cook them and have great results with them. Case in point: Josh Dahlke’s venison rib recipe was one of the best things I have ever eaten.

Cooking Deer Meat Odds and Ends (and Organs)

I know it may seem weird, but this is actually my comfort zone. I love the odd cuts from the deer, and I have tried almost everything that can be tried: the heart, liver, tongue, kidneys, and testicles (a.k.a Rocky Mountain oysters). It’s all good, with a few exceptions. I have not eaten the brain, lungs, or stomach, and I don’t know that I ever will. Unless, of course, I get the courage to make haggis.

I love deer heart—so much so that I have asked all my hunting friends to save them for me. I like heart grilled, fried, pickled, and raw. The deer’s liver is another beautiful thing. It can be a little potent, but fantastic when prepared correctly. One of the best things to do with liver is make a sausage called Mazzafegati. It is a sweet and clean-tasting sausage that will change the mind of even the pickiest palates.

Read Next: How to Cook the Most Underrated Cuts of Venison

Deer Meat Cuts: Breakdown Hindquarters

Venison hindquarters produce the most meat, which can be broken down into large, usable cuts. I did my best to describe each cut below, although note that the terminology for these cuts is often different based on region. Above you can see the four whole pieces that come from the hindquarter. Also on the hindquarter are the shank and some stew meat that trims off the other cuts. I also left in the femur bone, which you can roast and use to make stock.

Make Bottom-Round in to Jerky

The bottom round is a great piece of meat and, once trimmed, it’s very lean. I use it for making corned venison roasts, and for making jerky. It’s also a great piece for the grill, as demonstrated by this awesome recipe for carne asada by my buddy, Jack Hennessey.

How to Cook Venison Eye of Round

The eye is situated right in between the top and bottom rounds. It’s like a small, hidden tenderloin. It’s very lean and only big enough for one person, but when paired with its mate from the other hind quarter, it can be made into a beautiful little roast like the one my friend Danielle Pruitt makes. Because it is so lean, it’s a great piece for curing. I’ll make a very nice bresaola every now and then that’s easy to make and packed with flavor. The eye is also a great candidate for nearly-raw tataki, a Japanese preparation.

How to Cook Venison Top Round

The top round is a giant piece of meat and perfect for cutting into steaks. I like to cut mine nice and thick, and then grill very fast on high heat. I like to keep my steaks very close to rare. But if thick steaks aren’t your thing, you could also cut this roast into thin cuts and marinate them.

Sirloin Recipes

The sirloin is the football-shaped roast on the back of the leg. This is a great roast to brine and slowly smoke. I recommend a basic brine of salt, maple sugar, garlic, and bay leaves, then smoke with maple until it hits an internal temp of 150°F. Then, thinly slice it and pile it on a Kaiser roll with horseradish for the best sandwich of your life.

Three Butchering Tips for Better Deer Meat

Dragging your deer to the local butcher can cost a huge chunk of change these days. Sometimes the quality of work is not up to your standards and a lot of the meat ends up being wasted or suffers from freezer burn. So be your own butcher and follow these simple tips.

1. Cool Things Down

According to Sim Harp, a professional deer butcher, the worse mistake a hunter can make is allowing the meat to get too warm. He recommends field dressing the deer as quickly as possible and storing the meat at a cool temperature to let it age. The safest way to age venison is to debone the deer and place the meat inside of a heavy contractor’s bag. This cuts down on space and allows you to keep the meat in the bottom of your refrigerator at a constant temperature. It also enables hunters to head back into the woods in states where you can fill multiple tags.

2. Meat Processing

Basically, you have four major cuts of meat consisting of the sirloin tip, back loin (back straps), front shoulder, and back ham section. The back ham portion of the deer includes the top round, bottom round, sirloin, and eye round. A lot of this meat can be cut into juicy steaks instead of grinding it into hamburger. According to Harp, the key is to trim away the silver seam and fat from the meat before butterfly cutting it into steaks. Simply square both ends of the meat and cut almost all the through before stepping over and cutting all the way through the steak for a butterfly cut.

3. Wrap It Up Tight

For the cost of one trip to the butcher you can purchase a commercial grade vacuum sealer from Cabela’s like the CG15. This handy device will dramatically increase the freezer life of your meat and eliminate wasteful freezer burn. The CG15 will also help maximize your freezer space and allow you to customize each package to fit specific quantities or cuts of meat. For innovative home butchering tips checkout Sim Harp’s DVD entitled “From the Field to the Freezer” by calling 1-800-858-1549. Also, feel free to share any of your own home butchering tips on the BBZ by posting a comment.

The post How to Cook Venison: The Best Ways to Prepare Every Cut appeared first on Outdoor Life.

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There are only a few key aspects to making great venison jerky: the preparation of the meat, the amount of salt and seasonings, and the drying time. These fundamentals overlap a bit, and there is some wiggle room, but if you understand the core concepts, you will never make jerky that is under seasoned, overly salty, too chewy, or too dry again. Here’s how to execute those basics and one of my favorite deer jerky recipes. 

Meat Preparation

Preparing meat gets the ball rolling in the jerky making process and you want to make sure you’re selecting the right cut of venison before you begin. Jerky is best made with lean cuts of meat to prevent spoilage. Whole muscles from the hind quarter are ideal—top round, bottom round, and sirloin tip. Venison is naturally lean, but depending on the age and time of the year, some deer will have a layer of fat on the skin side of their muscles. Trim any fat off of the meat. 

While you are trimming, you want to remove as much tough connective tissue as you can because silverskin, sinew, and tendon, once dried, are hard to gnaw through. Removing as much of these tough bits as you can will prevent the jerky from being a chore to chew.

Once trimmed, you want to slice the jerky as evenly as you can. The more uniform the slices, the more consistent the finished jerky will be. This will prevent overly dry edges or underdone centers in your strips of jerky. Place the trimmed meat on a baking sheet and place in your freezer for 30-90 minutes until very firm, but not completely frozen. Using a long, sharp knife, cut slices across the grain of the meat to your desired thickness. My preferred thickness for jerky is ¼ inch.

Read Next: Best Dehydrators for Jerky

Salting and Curing Deer Jerky

Using the right amount of salt in your jerky is important for flavor and preservation. Use the following guidelines to use the proper amount of salt and Instacure in your deer jerky recipe. 

Generally speaking, you want 1.5-1.75 percent of salt by weight in your jerky, which is roughly 2 ½ tablespoons of salt per 5 pounds of meat. The addition of other seasonings that contain salt need to be considered. In the below recipe, the 2 tablespoons of soy sauce is the equivalent of ½ tablespoon of salt.

In addition to the salt, Instacure #1 will further prevent spoilage, especially if you plan on storing the finished product at room temperature. Only a small amount is needed, .25 percent by weight, which is 1 level teaspoon per 5 pounds of meat.

Seasoning

This is where making jerky gets fun. You can add in anything you want to season your jerky. The only words of caution here is to remember that the dehydration process will concentrate the seasoning you use. I like to keep most of the venison jerky I make fairly simple—a little bit of heat and some savory notes are all I want in my jerky. 

A tip on seasoning: Mix the seasonings with water (1 cup per 5 pounds) before adding to the sliced meat. This will help evenly distribute the salt and seasonings. Once the meat is seasoned, cover and refrigerate overnight. This will allow the meat to absorb the seasonings and salt.

Dehydration

The amount of time needed to dry the jerky will depend on the temperature and thickness of the meat. For ¼-inch-thick jerky, 6 to 8 hours at 145 degrees is a good starting point. One thing to keep in mind is you can always dry the jerky more, but you can’t put moisture back into it. After the first 4 hours, I like to check on the progress of the jerky every hour until it’s perfect. 

A simple bend test is a good way to determine the doneness of the jerky. Take a piece of jerky and bend it from the long ends, if it’s not done it’ll be very pliable, overly dry and it’ll feel brittle. It’s perfect when white fibers appear at the bend of the meat. Another note: warm jerky will be more pliable than when it is cooled down to room temperature, so take that into consideration when testing for doneness.

Once dehydrated, allow it to cool down to room temperature before packaging it. From here you can store in an airtight container for weeks at room temperature, or in a refrigerator for months.

Chipotle Venison Jerky Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 pounds venison, trimmed, sliced ¼ inch thick
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon Instacure #1 (Prague Powder #1)
• 1 cup water
• 1 ½ tablespoons black pepper, ground
• 1 ½ tablespoons chipotle pepper, ground
• ½ tablespoon cayenne pepper, ground
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

Directions 

Trim the venison of fat and connective tissue. Freeze for 30-90 minutes until firm but not completely frozen.

Slice meat crossgrain ¼-inch thick.

Mix water with remaining ingredients and pour over the sliced venison. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Spread out sliced venison on dehydrator racks. Dehydrate for 6-8 hours at 145F. Check for doneness every hour after the first 4 hours. 

Allow to cool to room temperature before packaging.

Read Next: How to Make Deer Jerky in an Oven, Smoker, and Dehydrator 

Final Thoughts 

This deer jerky recipe makes a great treestand or everyday snack and keeps for weeks in the refrigerator. If you’d like to make it last longer, you can vacuum seal it and freeze it for next hunting season. 

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