I remember the first time I ever tasted venison. I was just a child and my grandfather had successfully shot a beautiful roe deer buck.  As was always the case, my father, the chef André Daguin, butchered and prepared the meat.  After several days of hanging, the result of this success was a feast featuring a beautiful rack of venison and a daube (red wine stew) that perfumed our restaurant for several days.  Friends and family gathered to enjoy it, rather like a traditional hunt must have been in Gascony hundreds of years ago.  Like many of my childhood food memories, I've been trying to duplicate it ever since.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a family so adept at turning game into delicious dishes.  And for many, venison is associated with a hunter friend who dispenses irregular, butcher-paper-wrapped meat parcels of uneven quality and dubious taste.  As a result, venison's reputation has suffered until recently.

Over the last decade or so, venison has become mainstream. The best restaurants in the country include it on their menus, and it can be purchased at neighborhood grocery stores, and local butchers as well as online. Not only is venison easier to procure, but it's more tender and milder in taste than its wild counterpart. Retail availability also means that cooks can pick and choose the best cuts, not just the frozen stew meat left over from Uncle Bob's hunting trip last year.

Venison Sources

In addition to venison hunted largely in the Fall and early Winter season, ranches or farms are now located throughout the world. Most of America's supply currently comes from New Zealand ranches and is marketed under the appellation Cervena (see below). This is supplemented by privately-operated local farms. The ready availability has resulted from increased demand for both "exotic" and healthier meats. Game of all types, especially venison, is lower in fat, cholesterol, and calories and higher in the essential nutrients niacin, phosphorus, iron, selenium, and zinc. There is a great appeal, also, for meat raised in sustainable environments without the use of growth hormones, genetic alterations, animal byproducts, or antibiotics. Venison meets all these requirements.

The term venison comes from the Latin verb venari, meaning "to hunt."  It can refer to meat coming from boar, hares, and certain species of goats and antelopes, but is most commonly applied to deer meat. The meat is characterized by its fine-grain and supple texture resulting from short-thin muscle fibers. Red (the largest type of deer), axis, fallow, and roe are the most common type of deer used for their meat. Because of its large size, red deer are preferred for ranch-raised venison. Occasionally roe venison shot wild in Scotland, can be found.

The introduction of Cervena from New Zealand has added a measure of quality-control to venison around the world. Cervena is a trademarked appellation that certifies that venison has been naturally pasture-raised, grass-fed with only minimal supplemental feed such as hay, and without steroids or growth hormones. Antibiotics are administered only in cases of extreme disease and their use is then tracked by animal. Cervena also requires that animals be under three years of age at time of processing and that processing take place at accredited facilities.

Venison Cuts

Cooking today's ranch-raised venison no longer requires the slow-cooking and low temperatures traditionally used for wild deer. Ranch-raised deer meat is most tender and moist when cooked quickly to rare at high heat. It is a red meat that tastes most similar to beef. Following are specific guidelines for preparing different cuts of venison.

Venison, being a naturally lean meat, is best served rare or medium rare, then rested to ensure maximum juiciness and tenderness. If overcooked, it becomes tough and dry.

by Ariane Daguin, Owner, D'Artagnan

About Ariane Daguin and D'Artagnan