How many actually like the taste of backstrap?

Seems to me nobody does. Every recipe includes wrapping it in bacon, or stuffing it with something. I like changing it up as much as the next guy, but I've even read where some people make their jerky out of the backstrap. What? Yea, what a waste. I guess some people over cook it.

I agree, I usually heavily marinate it, tenderize it, bacon wrap it or fry it - all things which I would never do to a good quality steak.

I made the mistake of getting a couple of deer that I had processed's backstrap done into the sausage stuffed bacon wrapped and smoked backstrap from Carls this year. Problem is, the first one of them I thawed out, by the time I got it warmed up/cooked on the grill, it was WAY overcooked and tough. So I have a bunch of this smoked stuffed backstrap in the freezer that I have no clue what to do with.

I like it rubbed with a little olive oil and salt&pepper cokked over a HOT grill until med. Rare.

^^^THIS^^^

I also did some that was *lightly* rubbed with EVOO and Montreal Steak seasoning

Gotta really beat it down and don’t over cook it. Prepared right it’s as good as any filet mignon.

Jerky isn’t a waste if you like jerky.

I'll pick "Me" for 1000 Alex.

Let's not exaggerate . But seriously I like a good backstrap. I grilled the ones off the buck I got this winter and it was very good.

One of my favorites.

I cook it just like I do a steak.

Inner loin< back strap< Beef filet

You got it backwards.

I marinate in soy sauce and minced garlic.

Of course med. rare. Is there another way?

I'll take mine tenderized, double battered and fried.

It ain't a beef steak, so let's quit trying to compare the two.

Grilled is good, but it's no where close to a filet or ribeye.

It makes one hell of a sauce picante. Bout the only way we cook it now. On occasion we throw a little in a hot skillet and fry it.

I cook mine whole on the grill to a medium rare, after I've let it age in the fridge for at least 2 weeks. I roll it around in dales and cover it with montreal steak seasoning. I put some pecan wood on the coals and I sear all sides first and then set it off to the side. Just soon eat it as a steak. I love it. 3FFARMS, you should age one for 2-3 weeks and then try it. People who don't care for deer meat have eaten mine and were blown away. Makes some great au jous when you cover it with aluminum foil in a pan and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

i like mine in a cast iron skillet cooked in the oven ,

The inner loins off the little fork-horn buck I killed this past season was some of the best, if not THE best, meat I've ever put in my mouth (there's a hanging curveball for someone...)

Did not marinate it at all, in anything. simply brushed them both with EVOO, then did one with plain ol' kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, and the other one with a light dusting of Montreal steak seasoning. absolutely incredible.

My method is to cook it indirect on the KJ till the center hits 140ish. Pull it and let it rest a few minutes. Cut into thickness you like. You can cut it with a fork.

For the record, anyone who soaks a backstrap in zesty Italian dressing or anything of the like is not allowed in my house.

∆∆∆ x2

Marinating a backstrap is just about as bad as soaking deer meat in water/salt water.

We cook them whole like a beef tenderloin. Same exact method for each:

Prep - remove meat from packaging and dry with paper towels, if possible place on a rack in the refrigerator to continue to dry for a few hours prior to marinading.

Marinade: Rasberry Chipotle sauce and a cheap red fruity wine mixed 50/50 (10-12 hours in a bag).

Seasoning: Southern Seasoning Charbroil, garlic salt, and Season-All (equal parts of each).

Sprinkle liberal amount of seasoning out on a cutting board and roll the tenderloin in the seasoning coating it heavily.

Place tenderloin on grill and slow cook to medium-rare occasionally brushing or rolling in a pan with the left over marinade. Open grill and sear at the end to burn off any of the "blood contaminated" marinade.

Let it rest and serve.

I'd take properly prepared game meat over beef any day. Backstrap is great and simply done and done well, beats a steak. Its animal dependent of course.

In the last few years I've really liked tinkering with the harder cuts to cook, whole shanks, neck roasts, etc. These can be amazing cuts and so much more rewarding to eat than a grilled steak.

I went out to one of the top 5 or 6 restaurants in Birmingham earlier this week for business. Had a $48 ribeye and it was awful. I would of fed it to my dog, but not my family. Should of ordered the lamb or grouper.

I like mine cubed and fried in a little olive oil.

The entire mentality that the "wild gamey animal taste" must be masked, hidden, flavored or whatever likely stems from olden days decades past.

Refrigeration was minimal to non-existent. Unless cooked immediately, like small game (quail, squirrel), a chef-cook-Granny-Mom took the deer haunch and prepped it the way she'd been taught: cooking all the "gamey" taste out, smothering it with something, and so forth. European chefs did the same, based on what they'd learned from what their mentors had learned, and so we had creams and coatings and even blood-based sauces to coat the meat.

It's like the "soak in ice and salt for a week to get the blood out!" mentality. No one does that with beef. And soaking in a salty ice bath isn't aging the meat, which is totally different. Whenever I hear someone say deer or wild venison is "gamey" then to me it means they don't know what the hell they're talking about. It's a wild animal. It's supposed to taste and smell different, and they do.

Kill it, clean it, throw it on the grill with some salt and maybe a shot of pepper. Maybe.

Cut it in to pieces, flour and seasoning for breakfast, nothing better except quail.

Speaking of simple backstrap, had some tonight.

Exactly

That is perfect and everyone in my house prefers it to beef.

Looks awesome Ticka.


Also, if you enjoy Indian food and get Chicken Tikka does it make you laugh when you order it and do you ever say Chicken TikkaTikka?

One of my favorite ways to cook it unprepped is as a shish-ka-bob. 1 1\2 inch cubes on a bamboo squewer with bell peppers, onions and tiny tomatos. When the veggies are done the meat is perfect.

Tonight is elk sirloin. Tender as could be. Family ate 4 of them.

Boy that looks fine.

Don't eat Indian food much, but I'll remember that.

Rushi Indian restaurant, in the old Mama Goldberg's spot in the shopping center where Fresh Market is located, has a solid weekend buffet. I usually hurt myself when I go.

That elk looks fantastic, too.

Made a separate post, but here's one I did this weekend. EVOO, salt, pepper. no marinating.

Dang, some of yall eatin steak tar-tar.
I need a little more heat applied to mine.

If you've gotten your deer to the point of cooking it, it's already dead.................no need to kill it again.

Tikka, and Gomer that's some fine looking venison right there. Clem, you hit the nail on the head. Unless you've left a deer out in the sun or something went wrong with the processing, it's not going to have a gamey taste, unless your some sort of city slicker sissy.

anyone who says deer is "tough" or "gamey" has been eating deer that is overcooked or improperly butchered, or both. I could have taken that backstrap I cooked, seasoned with only salt and pepper, and cut a bit off and given it to someone who didn't know what it was, and they would have likely just assumed it was beef and never given it another thought.

The other thing I've noticed a LOT of people do, that leads to dry, tough venison, is they'll take it straight off the grill or out of the oven and start cutting into it. When you do that, you might as well be sucking every ounce of juice out of it and drying it out.

Gotta let that dude sit, under foil, for about 10 minutes before you go cutting it.

I've sent meat back at restaurants when I asked for Medium Rare and it came out with a barely pink sliver in the middle. One of the first times I ate with my to-become mother-in-law, she was aghast that I was going to eat "a piece of raw meat." In the 28 years since she's come to know that I like my steaks slapped on the ass saying Mooooo on the plate.

Couple of years ago in Canada the guide's wife cooked dinner for us each night. The meat - every night - was literally gray. Like pallid dead-skin gray. Even the meatloaf was dried. I don't know how it stayed together. She cooked every piece of meat until there was zero red-pink-shade of anything in it. All gray and tough.

Incredibly nice folks, but I ate a lot of vegetables and salad that week at supper.

That’s opposite of the way they normally come out. Usually it’s undercooked. Why a restaurant won’t cook the meal you are paying for as asked is beyond me.

Nice efforts fellas. Venison perfection!