By Dennis Smith
It’s summertime. The grill is fired up, and in our clan that often means wild game is on the coals. It also means we’ll likely hear, “You’re kidding, right? No way is this deer meat. Good grief, this stuff is incredible.”
We get that kind of reaction from almost everyone who samples our grilled venison steaks or burgers. And I do mean everyone. Even some big game hunters who have been eating venison for years think we’re pulling some kind of prank on them. We’re not.
Many chefs will tell you venison is exquisite cuisine, but then go to uncommon lengths to “enhance” its unique flavor by drowning it in complex marinades or serving it dressed in some fancy fruit or wine reduction. Some of these concoctions are actually pretty good, and you can do that sort of thing if you have the time, but the boys and I found that where most wild game — venison in particular — is concerned, simpler is often better.
If there is any secret to incredibly delicious venison, though, it lies in properly dressing, cooling, butchering and caring for the meat from the minute the animal is dispatched in the field until it arrives on your guest’s plate. Most commercial game processors do an excellent job of this, but doing our own butchering and wrapping allows us to custom cut steaks and chops to our liking and create our own burger and sausage recipes. We’re also ridiculously meticulous about removing every bit of hair, silver skin and sinew from every cut because it makes a decidedly big difference in the taste of the finished product. Commercial processors can’t afford to pay this much attention to detail. They may have hundreds of animals to process; we have only a few.
We bring the steaks to room temperature, brush them with olive oil and dust them with freshly cracked peppercorns, Himalayan salt and finely chopped garlic before grilling them directly over lump charcoal. The stuff is pricey and burns faster than regular briquettes, but it imparts a delightfully pure, wood-smoke flavor free of off-putting chemical fillers or adhesives.
Get the grill really hot, sear the steaks on one side with the grill cover down and top vent open until they release from the grill without sticking (usually about four or five minutes). Then, flip and grill the other side until they reach an internal temperature of about 128 degrees using an accurate, instant-read, digital thermometer. Remove the steaks from the grill and tent them in aluminum foil for five to 10 minutes to allow the juices to settle and the temperature to rise a few more degrees.
Yes, they’ll be red and rare inside, but so tender, juicy and flavorful, you’ll find yourself saying, “Good grief, this stuff is incredible.” You may even swear off store-bought meat.