Venison Backstrap Steaks with Mushroom Cream Sauce. (Photo courtesy of Chef Chris Sherrill)
Native Americans and European settlers largely survived by eating venison until beef replaced wild game. Even today, many modern sportsmen consume great quantities of wild game and rarely buy meat from the grocery store.
"Venison is completely different from beef or pork," said Chris Sherrill, a chef, former restaurateur and avid outdoorsman from Mobile, Ala. "Venison is much leaner than what is grown for restaurants or grocery stores, although it does have a beefy flavor and is often treated like beef.”
Preparing good venison starts in the field. Clean and cool the deer as quickly as possible to preserve the meat and its succulent flavor.
"Some...