Preparing Venison

Preparing Venison

1. Use only venison that has been field-dressed correctly.  Choose only deer meat that was cut, skinned, wrapped and refrigerated promptly by a professional or an experienced deer butcher.

  • Venison should also be aged for a period of 10-14 days after being dressed out. This allows the meat to dry out some, reducing the gaminess and making the meat more palatable.

2.  Trim away all visible fat. Unlike beef fat, which imbues the meat with flavor and helps to keep the meat moist, venison fat does not taste good and will do nothing for the texture of the meat. Using a sharp knife, trim away the connective tissue and fat from your cuts of venison before attempting to cook it.

  • You can discard deer fat, though it’s also commonly rendered into tallow, and makes for excellent soaps.
  • “Silverskin” is a thin membrane that you’ll find on many recently-processed cuts of venison, which you’ll want to remove if it hasn’t been already. It can be somewhat tedious but peeling it off the meat as much as possible will improve the flavor and also make it easier to cook.

3.  Marinate the meat overnight before cooking it. Venison has a strong, gamey flavor that you can highlight or mask, depending on the cut and what you hope to do with it. Learning a bit about how to match a cut to a marinade will help you tenderize the meat and add flavor. The best way to marinade venison is in a large gallon Ziplock bag in the refrigerator overnight.

  • Use thinner cuts with marinade and brine larger cuts. At most, an overnight marinade will only penetrate about a 1/8th of an inch into the meat, making marinading a large roast kind of pointless. Use thin strips of flank or backstrap to the marinade to get the most out of the process.[2]
  • For a simple marinade, use Italian salad dressing, or make your own with a half-cup each of vinegar and olive oil, a clove of minced garlic, and a teaspoon each of brown mustard and Italian seasoning (or oregano and basil).
  • For a BBQ marinade, sauteed half a finely chopped yellow onion and 3-4 cloves of minced garlic in about 5 tablespoons of butter until translucent. To this, add two cups of tomato sauce (or a cup of ketchup), a half cup each of apple cider, apple cider vinegar, and brown sugar, and two tablespoons of chili powder.
  • If you’re not a fan of the “gaminess” of venison, use a citrus-based marinade. Citrus tends to mask the strong flavor of venison and can make it more palatable to children and less adventurous eaters. Try marinading a half-cup of lime juice mixed with a half-cup of olive oil, half a cup of chopped cilantro, a minced green chile, a teaspoon of ground cumin, and a shot of tequila.

4.  Substitute the removed deer fat with another fat source. Although the deer’s own fat will affect the flavor of the venison adversely, venison lacks the “marbling” needed to keep it moist and tender, making it very easy to dry it out. Because of this, many experienced venison cooks will “bard” or “lard” the meat with another fat source, such as butter, margarine, oil, or bacon fat.[3]

  • Barding is done by adding fat to the outside of the meat. This method works best on the grill or in the skillet because it involves essentially basting the meat with a fat source. After turning the meat over, you can brush some melted butter or olive oil onto the browned side of the meat to imbue flavor and moisture.
  • Larding is done by inserting fat into the meat, through little cuts. This method works well for larger cuts and roasts that you cook in the oven and works especially will with other meats like ham or bacon. Use the tip of a chef’s knife to make incisions into the thick parts of your venison roast, then push small cuts of bacon, or fatty pork, into the slits. As it cooks, the fat will help to keep the meat moist.

5.  Match the cut to the cooking method. Different cuts are more appropriate for different cooking methods. Some are great cooked up as steaks, while others make better stew meats or candidates for venison sausage.[4] Whether you have a specific dish in mind and want to get the right venison for the job, or you want to find the best vehicle for your cuts, you can point yourself in the right direction:

  • Backstraps or tenderloin are the tenderest and usually the most desirable cut, and can be cooked whole, cut into individual steaks, or cut into smaller chunks for stews and stir-frys. Tenderloin can be served rare-medium.
  • Roasts are best from the lower hams, which should be braised or stewed at a low temperature for a long period of time to ensure tenderness.
  • Steaks are best from the top half of the hams, which are the most versatile section of venison. While it’s initially a bit tough, after being properly-tenderized, this meat can be used for a variety of purposes.
  • Stew meat should come from the lower ribs, the belly, and the neck. If you’ve got a meat grinder, this also makes excellent ground venison or venison sausage.

http://www.wikihow.com/Cook-Venison-(Deer-Meat)

The Northern Cape’s vultures

Two species of vulture are relatively common in the Northern Cape. The African White-backed Vulture has colonies around Kimberley (c. 300 pairs) and in the Kalahari (see article on aerial survey of Kimberley colonies). The Lappet-faced Vulture only breeds in the Kalahari (the last pair nesting in the Kimberley area disappeared a few years ago). The White-headed Vulture is occasionally seen in the northern parts of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park where it probably nests in small numbers. The Cape Vulture is extinct as a breeding species in the Northern Cape, but is occasionally seen in the Province and especially in the south-eastern Karoo and the Kimberley area. The Palm-nut and Egyptian Vultures are vagrants to the Northern Cape.

 

Research on vultures Mark Anderson has been studying African White-backed Vultures since 1993. This work, done in collaboration with Angus Anthony, and a team of keen Kimberley biologists and bird-watchers, is conducted on De Beers’ Dronfield Game Farm. The main aim of this work is to mark a number of vulture nestlings annually, with metal rings and initially with colour-rings, but latterly with patagial tags. This project provides useful information on movements, mortality factors, nest site fidelity, etc. A study is also currently underway to investigate the effects of climate change on this population of vultures.

GPS transmitters fitted to vultures This year, with funding from the Hawk Conservancy, De Beers and Gauntlet, we attached GPS-units to four vulture nestlings. The movements of these birds are now monitored on a daily basis (and can be tracked on www.birdlife.org.za; thanks to Kevin Ravno of Natural World for his help with the maps).

 

Vulture restaurants South African raptor conservationists pioneered the idea of vulture restaurants (places where safe food can be supplied to vultures). More information about vulture restaurants and a booklet on this exciting conservation initiative can be obtained from the Birds of Prey Working Group (contact Erika Belz at erikab@ewt.org.za)

There is a vulture restaurant and hide at De Beers’ Dronfield Game Farm, located just north of Kimberley. More information can be obtained from Mark Anderson.

Asian vulture crisis Mark Anderson was involved in the Asian vulture crisis and attended meetings in the USA, Hungary and Kenya. There were initial concerns that if a disease was killing Asia’s vultures it may spread to Africa. It was recently found however that a veterinary drug, diclofenac, has been responsible for the catastrophic decline in the number of vultures in South Asia.

Sources:

 

ttp://www.andersonafrica.co.za/vultures.html

http://www.andersonafrica.co.za/articles/kimberleysvultures.pdf

http://www.andersonafrica.co.za/articles/VultureresearchatDronfieldGameFarmduring2007.pdf

Northern Cape Weather and Climate

Although the Northern Cape Province is mainly semi-desert, the western areas of the Northern Cape, including Namaqualand, a small section of the Green Kalahari and Calvinia, Nieuwoudtville and Loeriesfontein in the Upper Karoo fall into the winter rainfall area from April to September. Sharing the same climate as Namaqualand, it’s not surprising these two sub-regions will give you breathtakingly beautiful explosive displays of wildflowers during spring months from July to October.  The eastern summer rainfall areas experience thunderstorms that resonate across the wide plains and powerful bolts of lightning puncture the earth. The Northern Cape’s weather is typical of the desert and semi-desert areas. This is a large dry region of fluctuating temperatures and varying topographies. The annual rainfall is sparse, only 50 to 400mm per annum. In January, afternoon temperatures usually range from 34 to 40º C. In 1939 an all time high of 47.8º C was recorded at the Orange River. Summer temperatures often top the 40 º C mark.

Winter days are warm. The onset of the night bringing dew and frost to supplement the low rainfall of the region. Sutherland in the Karoo is one of the oldest towns in South Africa. Its average minimum is -6ºC. In winter snow often blankets the surrounding mountains. On the whole, you can expect to enjoy hot summer days and chilly nights when visiting the Northern Cape, South Africa.  To start planning your trip, explore the Northern Cape with us! Enjoy browsing our info pages where you will find all the Northern Cape Attractions and destinations, photographs to inspire you and a good selection of accredited accommodation in Kimberley. You will find a user-friendly guide to accommodation, with listings sorted by region, town, and suburb and by categories from hotels and guesthouse to self-catering options. We hope you enjoy your stay in the fascinating Northern Cape Province!

 

 

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