How to Tenderize Venison

Even the tender cuts can benefit from a bit more tenderizing.

The tenderloin of the deer is located inside the abdominal cavity. It is the most tender part of the deer. But I’ve still had some that was as tough as rubber. The loin, aka the backstrap, is the long muscle that runs along the deer’s spine. This is the second tenderest/most desirable cut of meat you can get. If handled wrong, or just happens to be off some tough, old bastard, it can still be tough.

I came up with this method of tenderizing pretty much any cut that I don’t slow cook or grind. Which is the loin and tenderloin. And fine, ok, my wife taught me how to do this.

A second benefit of this method, is that you take what would be a small cut of meat, and bang it out into a more standard serving size.

The loin and the tenderloin are both tube like pieces of meat. When I freeze my loin, I cut the two foot length of muscle into about 6-8 inch lengths. Here is the process with one of those loin pieces. For tenderloin, I would just do the whole thing at once this way.

loin1[schema type=”recipe” name=”How to Tenderize Venison” author=”Don Oldfield” pubdate=”2015-10-22″ image=”https://venisonthursday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/loin1-300×225.jpg” description=”A simple way to tenderize venison (or any type of meat) is to simply whack it with a blunt object.” prephours=”0″ prepmins=”5″ cookhours=”0″ cookmins=”0″ ingrt_1=”Venison Loin” instructions=”Place the roast in a plastic bag. Whack it a few times with a rolling pin or other blunt object to flatten it to your desired thickness. Don’t overdo it, or it will turn to hamburger.” ]Let’s start by taking the tube and cutting it in half, lengthwise.

Also on Venison Thursday:  Pan Fried Venison Liver and Onions

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Then, take a piece and put in a bag.

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Then get a blunt instrument. In my case, I use a rolling pin. And that’s why I use the bag.
So my wife doesn’t yell at me for mucking her rolling pin up.

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Now, pound the @!^%$ out of it. Well, use a little restraint.
Try to get the steak to a nice even thickness. If you go to far, it will just fall apart.

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You can see we now have a “larger” steak to work with. Repeat with the remaining piece.

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Voila! You can now cook this in a pan, in a grill, however you would cook a fine steak.

By bashing it with the rolling pin, you’ve broken down the connective tissue so that even if you cook it well done (which is blasphemy when it comes to venison), it will STILL be tender. You should still strive to cook it to medium rare, but this will make it more forgiving. Or if you are feeding someone squeamish about rare meat, you don’t have to feel quite so bad about overcooking it on purpose.

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