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smoking venison tenderloin

Fr0tran

Fr0tran

if that doesn't already have you drooling, then i don't know what else to tell ya besides i'm trying to come up with some newer seasonings, rubs, sauces, etc. to use while cooking my venison! with bow season right around the corner, i'm running extremely low on deer in the freezer, but saved the best for last: tenderloin. anywho, i'll prolly accompany this dish with a bottle of red wine, and like the thing still grunting when i take it off the grill (rare). the whole [cooking] season i've basically made my backstraps the same way: season with garlic and cajun, then grill. so i ask, what is a different way to prepare this meat? now, what i don't want is someone saying "oh, you're gonna wanna soak it in wine for 48 hours to get rid of the 'gamey' taste". you can go to hell right now if you tell me that...you and your made-up words and recipes that degrade tastiness! :hell: but i digress, ah yes...venison tenderloin preperation for the grill! any ideas?
 
I see you like to taste meat, and not seasoning. Good for you! Most people like to hide gamey meats in soy sauce. I haven't had venison since I was a kid, and have never cooked it. If you like the flavor of the meat, why not try to season like you would pork tenderloin or brisket?
 
Backstraps? The beg to be wrapped in bacon! Like most loin cuts, but especially the venison, there is little fat here. My friends and I always did a simple soy sauce and garlic marinade for a few hours, then rubbed in salt, pepper, garlic powder, cajun, etc. whatever you've got that sounds good. Wrap that puppy in bacon, and grill just till the bacon begins to crisp up a bit. May take longer and not be as rare as you prefer, but even cooked medium, the bacon rocks.



EDIT: I see THP has beat me to the post, and flogged my soy sauce idea as flavor masking! I beg to differ. The marinating need not be for several days. As you stated above, some folks don't like the venison flavor, and prefer to soak the "Gamey" flavor out. An hour or two swim in soy sauce isn't going to fully permeate the meat.

But if you do the bacon thing, you can pretty much skip the marinating. Just rub under bacon = WIN!
 
yeah, my uncle whom i hunt with is a BIG fan of the bacon wrapped venison. and often times reminds me what i'm missing when i don't cook it that way...but i never seen to have a slab of bacon around when i wanna grill some deer! another thing, my uncle will rub his down with some seasonings, and then let it sit in the fridge for a day, then take 'er out to cook. does it really matter all that much if you're using dry rubs? it was always my understanding that you really only let something sit overnight, etc. is if you're marinating it in some type of sauce.
 
Fr0tran said:
yeah, my uncle whom i hunt with is a BIG fan of the bacon wrapped venison. and often times reminds me what i'm missing when i don't cook it that way...but i never seen to have a slab of bacon around when i wanna grill some deer! another thing, my uncle will rub his down with some seasonings, and then let it sit in the fridge for a day, then take 'er out to cook. does it really matter all that much if you're using dry rubs? it was always my understanding that you really only let something sit overnight, etc. is if you're marinating it in some type of sauce.
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On the dry rub thing, no, you don't need to "marinate" with a dry rub. Just coat it real good and let it get fully wet. Then you can coat again if needed or preferred for a dry coating on top of the wet.
 
rub with olive oil, rub your favorite spices on it, throw on the grill until medium/medium rare

this is another forum members pic

this is his results
2008-08-23_164008_23aug08_-_deer_tenderloin_-_qview_3.jpg
 
I like bloody meat that tastes like meat, not sauces and spices.

I put my loins(season started here on Aug 1st!!!!) in a ziplock with fresh ground black pepper, maybe a touch of garlic, and add water to cover and let it soak overnight. The pepper gets into the meat, and then I cook until rare(it's a damn shame to cook game past rare!), salt to taste while eating.

Done. With duck I wrap with bacon everytime, venison I don't always do it unless it's a large cut. Also a guy here coated his venison roast in a thick layer of Crisco and sprinkled seasoning on it, let sit overnight, then cooked it. PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!
 
OK...this is from a southern boy...my favorite way to cook backstrap is to slice it in about 3/8" slices, season it with a home made rub (spicy is good), let it rest for an hour or so, then dredge it in egg, toss in flour, then flash fry it in a deep fat fryer or pan fry it until golden brown...(just don't overcook it)
 
If you don't like the gamey taste just go the f**k back to McDumpster's(McDonald's) then.....

And save the good stuff for us.
 
Some people say lamb is gamey and I eat lamb all the time. Usually once a week on average. It's the only way to eat vindaloo!
 
thehotpepper.com said:
Some people say lamb is gamey and I eat lamb all the time. Usually once a week on average. It's the only way to eat vindaloo!
Click to expand...

Really? I can honestly say i've never had a gamey lamb before and i eat lamb and goat constantly. Thats a strange one to me.
 
Never experienced it, I have just seen it in lists of gamey meat. I find it strange as well. ;)
 
the deer around home dont have any gamey taste, plenty of crop fields around so they almost taste just like beef.

my all time favorite method of cooking tenderlion or backstraps is slice them into little steaks & sautee them with white onions & garlic - start the onions/garlic a little bit before so they get carmelized by the time the venison is done. (almost drooling thinking about this)
simple recipe & it doesnt hide the venison taste or add any flavors from spice mixtures, just the natural flavors of the 3 main ingredients.

I know you said you dont want to hear soy sauce, but this is another simple recipe & tastes really good.
brown sugar, soy sauce or worchester sauce, melted butter - about even ammounts but more brown sugar so the sauce is kinda thick so you can baste the venison steaks on the grill.
just baste the steaks with this sauce as you grill it.

I also like to just grill up a venison steak w/o any seasonings/spices.
 
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