Never Season Venison Steak The Same Way You Would Beef

Venison is an excellent choice if you enjoy eating red meat. Although it has a reputation for tasting "gamey," this is typically true only if the deer from which it came was improperly hunted and field dressed. Well-handled and properly cooked venison tastes similar to beef but has a richer flavor, in my opinion. But this doesn't mean the two meats should be treated the same when it comes to seasoning them. The Takeout recently spoke to Lee Garman, Executive Chef at Owamni restaurant in Minneapolis (@owamni on Instagram). Owamni specializes in creating dishes using North American Indigenous ingredients, like corn, beans, native plants, and wild American game. 

Garman accentuated the importance of not seasoning venison as quickly as you would beef, saying, "We generally season our venison about 3 to 4 minutes before cooking and then finish with salt. With venison you have to be careful because it is very lean and does have a tendency to dry out quickly." Indeed, you won't find a lot of marbling of fat throughout any given cut of venison, especially steak cuts. With this in mind, the way it's cooked also matters if you want tender, juicy results. 

The expert went on to say that the chefs at Owamni prepare venison steak in one of three ways: seared over a very high heat until it's cooked to medium rare, cooked lowly and slowly with some added fat, or raw, tartare style. "We serve thousands of venison tartares every year," he said. "We cut the venison loin into small cubes or grind it. We then add our favorite aromatics and duck egg aioli and serve the venison with tortilla chips."

It's pretty well known that it's harder to overcook and dry out meats that have a higher fat content, such as chicken thighs, pork steaks, and steak cuts like ribeye. With these, seasoning with salt ahead of time imparts delicious flavor into the meat. These are generally the types of meats chefs are referring to when they tell you to season grilled meats in advance. But venison is substantially leaner than these other meats, having just 6 grams of fat in a 3-ounce portion, compared to the same amount of beef having 11 grams of fat. Salt draws out moisture, which you don't notice much in fattier meats, but with venison, the difference is notable.

I lived in Pennsylvania for almost 17 years with my husband, who is an experienced hunter, and most of our red meat stash was in the form of venison, from the deer he procured. Needless to say, we loved venison and ate a lot of steaks. In addition to only salting the meat right before we cooked it, I made a lot of serving sauces as well. One of our favorites was a wild blackberry and balsamic glaze, which tasted amazing on the richly flavored meat. Blue cheese sauce and herbed compound butter also topped our venison, adding both flavor and that rich texture of fat that wasn't otherwise in the meat.