Venison Tenderloins

[Bubbadust]

How does everybody prefer to prepare their tenderloins?

[Tripleplay]

Salt and pepper---grilled outside. Warmed up barbecue sauce for dipping. Can't get in the way of the quality of this meat with anything too heavy.

[ducksnbucks]

Marinate in Zesty Italian for about six hours and then grill on medium heat until about medium rare. I have also marinated in mesquite with lime (made by lawry's), same directions. Wow, they are both really good.

[Mark Christianson]

I saw this post and grabbed my final bag of tendorloins out of the freezer for tomorrow night.

How stupid of me to leave them in the freezer for more than a day!

[Stratosman]

They are good many ways, I like to section them across the grain into about 1/2" thinck medallions. Dust them lightly with seasoned flour and fry in hot oil, cook med. rare. Serve over buttered noodles.

[Gissert]

I do them like Stratosman, except I use a wok with olive oil. Olive oil has a pretty low smoke point, so it has a tendancy to get a bit smoky when you cook them, but I really like the flavor that it imparts. If you don't have olive oil, any veggie oil works good and will smoke less.

I stir fry them by themselves until the outside of the meat starts to carmelize. At that point, the centers should be medium rare.

I am gonna have to try them with noodles, that sounds really good.

The back straps can be prepared in the same manner, and are almost as good as the tenderloins.

[RussDaBuss]

I agree with the Olive Oil.. I make my tenderloins that way and oh baby!!!! great stuff!!!

[YukonDew]

Geez guys - I'm already drooling and it'll be at least 9 hours until dinner. I guess that's my punishment for scanning the forumn at work......

Our preferred method -

We'll take the thawed tenderloin or 8" - 12" sections of blackstrap and roll in Canadian Steak Seasoning. Heat up a lightly oiled pan and seer the whole piece, kind of rolling it in the pan. Sprinkle with a little more seasoning and put it on a broiler pan and slip into the oven - Depending on the cut, 375 - 425 works well - My wife has a knack for knowing just how long to bake until it gets that nice uniform pink center - ( sorry guys with I could be more specific) Slice into 3/4 pieces across the grain and eat! The seasoning adds a little flavor without covering the flavor of the meat.

A few years ago I fell in love with Canadian Steak Seasoning. It's marketed by Tones - we buy ours at Sams club. Ingredients: Salt, Dehydrated Garlic, Black Pepper, Dehydrated Onion, Spices, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Red Pepper. Something about a little salt, garlic and pepper that appeals to me on steaks & roasts. Since I found this stuff I haven't use any steak sauce in a bottle - they seem to bury the flavor of the meat too much for me.

[Stratosman]

I'm going to dig into the freezer as soon as I hit continue..ready, NOW.

[chucker34]

For a great appetizer or meal, I like to marinade chops in a recipe I actually pulled from Field and Stream that consists of 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup dark beer, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 3 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped. Wisk all that together and let the chops sit in their "bath" overnight. The next day I broil them under high heat in the oven for no more than 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve them whole if part of a meal or slice them up and place them on a platter with some very sharp cheddar cheese and some town house crackers. Dang good. I tell you what. The appetizer way of serving them goes very well with several beers.

[Mark Christianson]

I just got done eating a big ole slab of tenderloin.

Holy dump was that good.

I used seasoned salt, onion powder and salt, garlic powder and salt, and some southwest seasoning.

Tossed it on the grill and put a light amount of olive oil on it(that tip about using olive oil in the wok got me thinking).

My son was just beside himself. He isnt usually as fond of venison as compared to his corndogs, but tonight he wouldnt stay away.

I am in heaven I tell you.

[Hotspotter]

Chucker:

I've been using a variation of the same recepie for quite awhile now, and love it!!! Here are some additions to try out with the marinade. Not all at the same time!

-Rosemary

-fresh parsely

-onions

-ginger

-tarragon

-use low sodium Soy, and use celery salt for more flavor

The soysauce-beer-brown sugar combination is a favorite of mine with a little bit of olive oil for marinating all venison. It's basically a home-made teryaki sauce with more flavor from the beer. The carbonation in the beer, acids in the soy sauce, and olive oil makes any and all venison even more tender.

Beers to try (in the marinade):

-Schells Caramel Bock

-Shiner Bock

-Moose Drool

-Leine's Creamy Dark or Doppelbock

-Schells Firebrick

-Jame's Page Burly Brown

Depending on the beer, you can really change the taste. The ales and cheap light beers seem to do better for tenderizing (more carbonation?), and the smoother darks seem to impart more flavor. IMO, any summit, IPA, or northern porter will overpower and ruin.

Joel

[Tripleplay]

My dad had me salivating last night with this one:

Marinade venison steaks in fajita seasoning. Grill. Slice into decent pieces and add fried peppers & onions and anything else you like on your fajitas or grinders.

Not sure I'd use tenderloins or even back straps myself for this method but chops definitely.

[Haug Hunter]

I like to use Cavender's all purpose Greek seasoning. it even gets my 2 year old to eat venison, and she dosen't like anything.

[chucker34]

jnelson,

I really like this type of recipe as well - as does my wife. The first time she tried it she got a big smile and said "this doesn't even taste like deer." She raves about it tasting more like a beef filet mignon or the likes. I can still tell its venison and think the flavor of the marinade simply complements the meat.

Great suggestions. I do use the low sodium soy as the regular gets too salty and I think it dries out the meat. I'll have to add some olive oil. How much do you usually use?

I like the broiling method best. Besides making it tasty, it cooks thoroughly without becoming well done and its quick and easy to clean up. Just put some foil over the broiling pan. No grease pools to flare up and catch fire with venison like there is with beef!

I do notice that Northern Porter does tend to overpower the meat taste. I have tried several of the types of beers you mentioned and agree somewhere in the middle in terms of darkness (I like ambers) is probably best.

I've ranted here but one more idea is to pound backstrap chops down flat with a meat mallot and bread them and fry them up in some olive oil as part of venison marsala. After you cook the venison and remove it from the pan, you fry up mushrooms and chopped green onions, and then add marsala wine (tastes like weak, sweet whisky) and beefstock. Put the fried venison on top of some pasta and dump the mushrooms/onions/marsala sauce over it. You can do this with venison steaks as well and get good results. Backstrap chops are the best though in my opinion.

Chuck

[LABS4ME]

O.K. a quick recipie I use for backstraps (I'm sure it'd be good with tenderloin too, but I prefer that lightly seasoned and lightly marinated, cooked quickly over hot coals).

"Buck Balls"

Butterfly your chop so it looks like a piece of pita bread.

Marinate in Lawrys Havanna Lime and Garlic marinade for 3-4 hours

Inside the butterfly place slices of pickled Jalepeno peppers (like the ones they give you for nachos) I use one for the smaller chops and 2-4 for bigger ones.

Wrap this with double smoked bacon and grill 3-4 minutes (over hot coals or burners on high on gas grills) per side so the chops are still pink or until the bacon is done. We cut the bigger ones into 2-4 pieces and serve them as hors-d-ovres or serve whole as a meal.

The wife and kids really like the smaller ones, so when I am nearing the end of cutting the chops off the backstrap, I save the ends and make "small" butterflied chops off of that.

Variation: We were up fishing once and threw some pepper jack cheese in the middle with the peppers, some of the guys really like that, myself, I liked them better without.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Royce Aardahl]

Quote:

---

I saw this post and grabbed my final bag of tendorloins out of the freezer for tomorrow night.

How stupid of me to leave them in the freezer for more than a day!

---

I can't believe you let them get to the freezer!

One of my favorite ways is cut into 3/4 inch chunks, a bit of olive oil, chunks of onion and chunks of green pepper. I heat up the vegies first to tenderize them a bit then add the meat. A bit of freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkling of montreal steak seasoning. It's great over noodles but usually go from the pan straight to my plate!

[chucker34]

Tried this one for New Year's Eve - mini-venison wellingtons. Saw the same recipe for mini-beef wellingtons in the local paper.

Pretty simple. Took a tenderloin and cut it into one inch chunks. Rolled out a package of thawed puff pastry you can get in any supermarket freezer section. You cut the rolled out pastry into squares big enough to wrap the tenderloin chunks in. But before you do, you top the chunks with a mixture of minced mushrooms, green onions, and garlic that you cook up in a little butter and wine in a frying pan. Once the wellingtons are wrapped tight, into the oven they go for 12 minutes at 475. Involves a little assemply work but holy cripes it was good. And the nice thing about it is that there's really no sauce detracting from the meat. The meat taste blends nicely with the other ingrediants.

[nytelyter]

but then i would only be useing one bottle out of six of the dark. what do you expect me to do with the other 5 drink them? by then i wont taste the meat cause my tongue will be pickled. heheheheh i do mine in a hot cast iron skillet with two pats of BUTTER not the junkie stuff. then i sandwich them into the toast with a bit of good quality horse radish spread onit and i am in heaven. these are great in the fishhouse. iffen you were to have a stove like i do. gotta be hot tho cold sammies do not taste as well. and like chef john says "good eating"

[Chef]

This one gets compliments every time...

Simple Wild Mushroom Sauce for Venison:

Ingredients:

Venison Loin Chops or Steaks for 4 Adults.

4-Tsp. butter

1/2lb. each--sliced Crimini, [PoorWordUsage]ake and reg. mushrooms.

2-coarsley chopped Shallots

3-chopped garlic colves or to taste

1/2 c. quality Dry Marsala Wine

1-Pint Heavy Cream

Cooked Wild Rice

Procedure:

In a heavy-non-stick skillet, med-high heat melt butter and sautee shallots for 1-2 minutes, add garlic and cook for 1 minute-stirring constantly. Toss in mushrooms and cook 3-4 minutes or until softened.

Transfer mushrooms to a bowl, reserving all liquid.

On high heat, add wine and reduce by 1/2, add cream and bring to a boil, reduce until it begins to thicken, reduce heat and add mushrooms to heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange rice and medium-rare Venison on warm plates and spoon sauce over meat--serve immediatley.

This is easy to make and tastes great with Venison, Lamb or Beef.