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.