Poor Vince! Tonight we had venison. He didn’t grow up with it but he loves to hunt and since we eat what we get, we eat venison. I like it and often I can disguise it and he doesn’t realize we’re eating it. I can use the ground meat in meatloaf or mix with pork to make burgers. I can cut it up and use it in chili and stews, but tonight we were having fried venison with gravy, rice, corn and salad. He asked what we were having and I could not lie. I said “Meat and gravy!” Dead giveaway . . what kind of meat?
Venison
At first, he said “I’ll just have a sandwich!” NO WAY! I know it’s hard to learn to eat things you didn’t grow up eating. He also won’t eat squirrel but thank goodness, he’s learned to like crawfish and frog legs.
When I fixed his plate, I gave him two chunks of meat, he ate those and he asked for two more! Very good sign. I kept saying “Are you sure you’re ok with it?” and he said “I’m going to hunt so I’m going to learn to like it.” Honestly, when you think of all the hormones and antibiotics in most of the beef we buy, and the price we pay . . I’d rather eat venison from the back yard for every meal.
So . . he ate it. He says he liked it. All is well at our little house.
Seriously . . look at that gravy. If I have rice and gravy, that’s all I need to make me happy . . as far as food goes! 🙂
Sheryl says
We’re having venison and gravy with rice tonight also. I’ll probably cut up some tomatoes from the garden to go with it.
Linda in NE says
Have you ever canned venison? We like it better than canned beef. It would be great to be able to shoot deer from the porch. Around here it’s hard to even find a place to hunt because all the farmers want big bucks for leasing out their land to hunt. That just isn’t practical, and certainly not economical.
Diana G says
Love gravy and rice, noodles, potatoes .. YUMMY !!!
I hope DH gets an elk this year; we both really like the meat and if its cooked right it tastes like lean beef.
Mariel says
That plate is making my mouth water! I do miss my dad and all the things he hunted. (deer, squirrel, pheasant, and partridge) You are so very right about the meat these days and all the additives!
Sandy Gail says
I grew up on venison. My husband brings home deer every season. It’s the blood in venison that makes it taste gamey. My mom taught me to soak the steaks in lightly salted water and to keep pouring off the water every couple of hours and adding fresh water without any more salt in it. After doing this for 24 hours, the meat turns the color of pork instead of that bright red, almost black color. Then, when cooking, add a hint of brown sugar. Many that I have served venison steaks to thought it was very good beef. We don’t like that liver taste that venison without having the blood totally removed has. Some people love the gamey taste, but if you don’t, this process works great.
JudyL says
What they eat has more to do with the gamey taste than anything. The deer we get here have mostly lived off corn from us and the neighboring ranches and I find they don’t have a gamey taste at all. The deer in MO had a bit of gamey taste but not something we couldn’t get past. I can cook the deer here without any soaking at all and unless I tell Vince it’s venison, he will hardly notice. It isn’t the taste that he has a problem with . . it’s just the fact that it’s deer and that’s only because he only started eating it a few years ago. He admitted last night that it was some of the best meat we get.
This is a link that talks about the fat and sinew having most of the gamey taste so we trim the sinew away and the deer here have very little fat. Our deer are way smaller than deer from MO or Louisiana.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/food/food-safety/preserving/meat-fish/gamey-flavor-and-cooking-venison/
Diane says
Amen! I love rice and gravy! I’m not big on venison or squirrel but I like rabbit.