Vivacious Venison
There are times, especially in the winter months, when your inner carnivore craves something not as gamy as lamb or goat, but not as boring as beef or pork. That’s where venison prances in. Thanks to the open-pasture operations of Highland Farm in New York’s Hudson Valley, this wonderful cervine source of protein is available year-round. Highland also happens to be the choice game farm of chef Daniel Boulud, whose expert preparations can be found at his namesake Michelin-two-star restaurant in New York City.
Like other meats, you can approach venison with minimum, moderate or masterful cooking skill. Highland lets you do some simple grilling with its chorizo venison sausages. Just put them on your Weber the way you’d cook any other standard links.
If you’re a burger fan, skip the ground chuck for a night and go for ground venison instead. Remember, deer is much leaner than beef so add a bit of grated butter into the mix when you’re seasoning. A word of caution though: do not overwork or compact the meat. Doing so will cause it to turn tough and dry. This is true with any ground meat, but especially so for venison. Some raclette cheese will give your Bambi burger an unctuous layer of alpine richness.
For more ambitious cooking, Highland offers fancier cuts like entire boneless loin roasts, loin medallions and bone-in ribeye chops cut from the last two bones of the loin for maximum flavor. These are tasty enough to cook on the grill with some coarse salt, but really, chops like this should spark higher aspirations. They’re perfect to prepare with berry or wine reductions, a bread crumb herb crust or any finish typically associated with meat roasts.
While farmed venison may not appeal to sportsmen, consider this: Highland slaughters and processes its animals quickly so its meat doesn’t take on the unpleasant mineral flavor of hunted deer that have been wounded and tracked. You won’t have a set of antlers to mount on your wall, but you will have the best-tasting meat in the lodge.
