Author: Timothy Fowler

Eat medium rare heart steak once and you’ll never leave one in the field again. Want more steak from your deer? Keep the heart. Many of us leave deer, elk, and moose innards in the field, but who amongst us would knowingly leave a pile of steak for the coyotes? If you have been leaving venison hearts in the field, or if you’re not sure what to do with the one in your freezer, here is a solution. Three careful cuts and a bit of judicious trimming transform venison heart into venison steak, and who doesn’t need more steak? A…

A venison bottom round is one of my favorite chunks of meat in the kitchen and its shape is perfect to grill for fajitas. At our house fajitas are often a vehicle to use leftover venison roast, but what follows are instructions to make a bottom round venison steak into a smoky, spicy, tender fajita filling. If you butcher your own animals, bone the hind leg into three pieces. (Or ask your butcher to bone the leg into three main muscles keeping the bottom round whole for fajitas.) Follow the seams between the three largest muscle groups and the bottom…

A Simple solution to improve Venison Liver, and a great alternative to a traditional Liver and Onions recipe. Here’s the thing—liver isn‘t everyone’s deal, but if you’re trying to sell it, this is as good a pitch as you’ll ever make. If you like liver, you’ll love this recipe. If you don’t, this is a pretty good on-ramp for a tolerable version you will want to try. Jim my hunting buddy, is kind of a quiet guy that doesn’t get too excited about anything. But pull a steaming liver from a whitetail, mule deer or an elk and he wants…

Five kinds of Mexican peppers frame up this smoldering bowl Well, this should start an argument. Chili. What’s in and what’s out? Meat and beans, just meat, or just beans? Which meat? You can use pretty much any protein you like from bear to hare, turkey to wild hogs, elk, antelope or moose would make a fine choice. Grind, dice or shred meat? There is no argument about chili and onions, but what kind of chili specifically and how much exactly? Tomatoes? My chili is made with venison, a young white-tailed doe to be specific. And more specifically it was…

Simple treatment for a classic dish This season we tagged out early in the day of our prairie mule deer hunt––so early in fact we lined up a pheasant hunt in the late afternoon. What follows is a simple treatment for pheasant breasts to be substituted for schnitzel normally made with pork. If you have no pheasant and want to substitute ruffed grouse breast, that would be fine, but you will likely want two pieces of breast per diner. Pheasant is a lean dense white protein that makes a perfect schnitzel. The optional mushroom sauce is an excellent accompaniment to…

Here’s a confession: I am a heavy smoker. My backyard features two pellet smokers and a Texas pit-style stick burner, in addition to a couple of gas grills and a charcoal grill. Often, when we serve guests game it involves smoke. There is a certain simplicity to smoked whole muscle game. In this case, the roast featured is the bottom round, cut from a hind leg of recently harvested whitetail. If you butcher your own deer, you will note that the hind leg separates easily into three large muscle groups. The smallest of these muscles is the bottom round, a piece…

Elevate ground venison to fine dining status with classic Italian cannelloni. Italians certainly have mastered the elevation of ground meat in center-of-the-plate masterpieces. Cannelloni qualifies as one of these and is a personal favorite. It is a perfect place to feature ground venison and elevate it to date night dinner status. This recipe uses pork to add both fat and flavor but go ahead and use 100% venison if you wish. The little Italian place in my neighborhood features cannelloni year-round and my wife’s favorite sauce is their blend of tomato and cream sauce. This gives the cannelloni a creamy…

Chorizo style venison meatballs liven up your weekly pizza night. Who doesn’t love pizza? Whether you use Tony Gemignani’s The Pizza Bible’s advice to craft your own, buy fresh dough from the deli or throw down a frozen premade crust, there’s nothing quite as delicious as your own pizza made fresh at home. In hunter-family households across the land, game-based pizza toppers elevate your weekly pizza night into the wild zone. These easy-to-make chorizo style venison meatballs add a spicy kick to pizza, or they can be sized up to make big, peppery game venison meatballs for spaghetti. Or you…

Here’s an excellent treatment for tough-to-deal-with venison ribs When it came to cooking for our family, my dear mother was more interested in keeping us four kids from starving and our father happy than pursuing some obscure culinary delight that would make the neighbors jealous. She first worked full-time as a clerk steno and then as executive secretary. (She basically ran the place for a fraction of what the boss made––but that is another story.) Money and kitchen time were tight. But we ate well because of Mother’s ingenuity and sensible money management. When pork side ribs went on sale…

Here’s a new way to make the most of the harvest. Korean ribs are skinny, cross-cut ribs that are marinated in a sweet, garlic-ginger, soy-based sauce. Ribs from moose and elk are big enough to process this way for a crowd-pleasing grilled summertime treat. The toughest part of this recipe is putting an arrow through the boiler room of a moose within bow range. Once you get a suitable moose on the ground, the serious work starts. After that, the next challenge is to find a butcher who is willing to cut your moose ribs into  1¼ and 11/3-inch slices…