COWGIRL teaches about canning… venison

This is GREAT!

Yes, this is officially my kind o’ gal.

I am green in many ways.  This time I am green with envy.

I must if I am in area, meet this lady.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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26 Comments

  1. prairie says:

    We usually vacuum pack ours and freeze it. My husband has been butchering ours himself. The last one, he kept back the backstraps and wrapped them in bacon and grilled them. They melted like butter in the mouth. We grind all the tougher cuts, but I wonder if we could skip grinding if we canned it in the pressure canner, since the pressure tenderizes so well. Canning might be hotter work than grinding, but it can’t be *more* work.

  2. Cool! In my sphere, I never had venison prepared this way. I would love to try it.

  3. cowgirl says:

    Thank you again Fr. Z.. I appreciate your kind comment. I would be happy to send a jar of my home canned venison for you to try. Please let me know!
    Prairie, the canning process does tenderize the meat. It is similar to pot roast. :)
    Thank you David!

  4. Rich says:

    This post complements that one about PETA from yesterday.

  5. People Eating Tasty Animals.

  6. Dorcas says:

    That looks super lean…would it need larding for roasts/steaks etc.? I guess canned it would be used for stews/soups…can it be uses in other ways?

  7. GrogSmash says:

    Suddenly I’m starving for a bambi-burger!

  8. Desertfalcon says:

    I have never canned it, but it is part of my regular diet. I just made a big crock-pot of Bambi stew yesterday. Home grown potatoes, parsnips, carrots, celery, onion and bay leaves, with cubed Bambi on top with only a lil’ kosher salt and pepper for seasoning, simmered until it cuts with a spoon. It was yummy.

  9. Desertfalcon says:

    BTW, if you want to eat heart healthy like I have to, venison and wild game is an excellent choice. Low in fat, high in protein and no added dyes or salt water or other junk they stick in store bought meats.

  10. Rob Cartusciello says:

    My wife & I had a venison stew one night in Seville that was out of this world. A perfect evening.

  11. Andrew says:

    Reminds me of my visits to Switzerland: some of the best venison ever.

  12. irishgirl says:

    Wow-that’s some display of venison!
    Never had it myself-what does it taste like? Is it ‘gamey’?
    This ‘Cowgirl’ lady seems to be quite the cook!

  13. RichR says:

    I’ve really enjoyed that blog.

  14. rakesvines says:

    Good post. My brother makes deer burgers. It’s kind of gamy but that goes away with a lot of red peppers. With canning skills, we eat what we can and can what we can’t. It prevents waste and lets us share our surplus – even abroad where venison is hailed as a delicacy.

  15. JohnW says:

    I am a firefighter in Houston . One of the men brought some venison and made carne asada, a Mexican stew. It was very good, but chicken fried deer steak is hard to beat.

  16. ghp95134 says:

    During the winter of 1992 I participated in a military exercise with the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force in Sapporo, Hokkaido. One of the officers brought in shika-sashimi — raw venison. Dee-Lightful!!
    http://shizuokagourmet.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/japanese-cuisine-venison-sashimishika-sashimi/

    Later he brought in basashimi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_meat#Japan … also delicious.

    Both these sashimi were still slightly frozen so they could be sliced easier. Dipped in a shoyu-wasabi mix …. yum-yum!

    –Guy Power

  17. ghp95134 says:

    Oopss … “Basashi”, not basashimi.

    –Guy

  18. danphunter1 says:

    Venison, yummy.

    We used to have a family friend, when I was younger, who would kill deer upstate NY and make venison sausage.
    I ate venison sausage for breakfast for years and really grew to like it a lot.
    It tastes a little like…..deer.

  19. Desertfalcon says:

    @ ghp95134,

    Wow! I would really like to try that! I love sushi and sashimi and I’ve had steak tartare so I’m sure that would be delightful.

  20. Banjo pickin girl says:

    The gaminess of venison depends a lot on what it has been eating. In agricultural states like Ohio the deer eat corn and soybeans and alfalfa so they taste more beef-ish just like cows from a feedlot. Places where the deer eat forest leaves and stuff the meat tastes very different.

  21. ghp95134 says:

    Desertfalcon: I’m thinking now …. perhaps it was a shoyu & grated ginger mix?? Anyway, both red meat sashimi are delicious.

    –Guy

  22. lizfromFL says:

    Wow. Was totally NOT expecting that image when I scrolled down.

  23. catholicmidwest says:

    Uh, no thanks. I just about smacked 4 of these critters on my way home in the dark tonight. I missed them! Whew.

    They freak out when they see the lights and then you don’t know what they’re going to do. Scary. They can do real damage to a car, even if you are stopped and they just run into you, which they sometimes do in their panic.

  24. catholicmidwest says:

    PS. Don’ t like deer meat myself because it’s gamey. BUT I don’t mind other people eating the things. If you all eat a bunch of them, then maybe they’ll stop jumping out in front of my car!!!!! I’d like that a LOT.

    PS, please leave a few for natural decoration, but just a few. ;) We’re way overpopulated at present, I’ve heard. I believe it.

  25. biberin says:

    Venison is not gamey if it is processed correctly. You apparently have to cut off every last scrap of anything but straight meat, or it will leak gamey flavor into the meat. I watched one processed in the garage of a conservation agent, and he was almost uncomfortably generous with the amount of scraps he ended up tossing into the woods. He told me he would never pay a a butcher to process it, because they don’t cut off enough. I was gifted an illegally harvested, commercially processed deer this year, so I may have to let you know if it is gamey-er. I canned all the stew cuts. I also can lean and not so lean cuts of beef and ground beef and chicken, because I have a small freezer. I had an old book that told me I had to simmer the cold-packed meat before processing, so I never tried it. Then I learned the newer way of just cramming it into the jar, adding a bit of salt, and GO. So unbelievably convenient.

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