For many early settlers in North America, venison was a primary food source. Pioneer women developed many diffferent ways of had many ways of preserving and preparing venison and other wild game for the dinner table.  Below are some general direction and advice for cooking venison:

Venison Cooking Tips

• Much of the gamey flavor in venison comes from the fat.  When cooking venison, trim off as much fat as you can.
• Look for venison recipies that include some other source of fat like butter, cooking oil, bacon, or pork and/or beef fat this will help keep the venison from drying out durring the cooking process and enhance the flavor.
• Over cooking a lean meat like venison tends to make it much more dry.  Don't overcook you venison
• Salt dries out the venison durring cooking by removing the natural juices.  Try not to salt venison before you cook it..
• Slow cooking is key when it comes to venison.  Cook the meat slow and in a sauce or oil that keeps it from drying out and becoming tough and chewey.
• after fryiing or grilling venison let the meat rest for 5 minutes or so to all the juice to be absorbed back inot the meat befor serving

Dealing with a strong or gamey taste in venison meat:

• Soaking your venison meat in salt, vinegar and water for several hours to help remove the gamey taste.
• For Venison it is best to use slow cooking methods and cook in sauces, gravies, etc. as venison is a much leaner meat them pork or beef.  Fast cooking of venison tends to dry it out.
• Use seasonings, marinades and sauces to help cover gamey tastes
• There are many different marinades on the market for venison meat.  These marinades tenderize the meat and disguise the gamey flavor.
• If you don't have access to a commercial venison marrinade the following ingrediance can be used as a marinade for venison:
  • Wine, vinegar or wine vinegar
  • French or italian sald dressings
  • Tomato sauce, tomato soup, stewed tomatoes and tomato juice
  • Citric Fruit Juices like orange, lemon and grapefruit juice