Breakfast for Dinner: Enhancing and Masking Venison

To each his own I’ve always said regarding eating wild game, particularly venison. Over the years, I’ve encountered many people that just don’t care for it; or vehemently make up their mind in advance. These are the ones that might not even eat it at gunpoint. Whatever the case, it’s okay.

Even I can grow weary of it at times. For me, Participating in a state-sponsored whitetail management program means killing a lot of deer; much more than we can eat. Luckily, in addition to “Hunters for the Hungry” type programs, I usually have a string of friends and family that want it; many of which pay for processing. Others I know fall in the middle; the tweeners. They are indifferent and don’t prefer it, but will eat it.

While I consider venison to taste different and unique, others can’t get past the different; the “gamey”. There are several things in the way we handle and process our harvest that can minimize the gamey flavor. However, at the end of the day, it will exist to some extent.

I never force wild game meat on anyone, but for those tweeners, I have found simple ways to enhance, if not mask it. One of my favorites is to preseason ground venison with breakfast sausage seasoning. I’ve yet to encounter anyone that doesn’t like breakfast patty sausage and there are several good commercial ones on the market. I prefer LEM Backwoods Breakfast Seasoning and Eastman’s Breakfast Seasoning. If you have your own homebrew mixture, even better. Breakfast sausage blends represent a good general-purpose seasoning with or without added pork.

I’m no chef but have found that thoroughly mixing the meat with as little as one half of what a commercial mix calls for yields a flavorful batch of ground deer meat ready for use in any recipe calling for ground beef such as spaghetti sauce or chili; not to mention different breakfast concoctions. Not exactly the most creative culinary idea, right? Well, instead of overthinking it, sometimes you just have to go for results and this flavorful and flexible method can give a kick to the most basic venison-based meals.

Enhancing or masking flavor? Call it what you will. Either way, it’s gratifying to prepare tasty meals from meat taken by rifle and bow. Again, there is nothing profound about this technique, but it just might please the leeriest of family and friends – all while still providing the awesome texture and nutritional benefits found with venison. And who knows, you might ultimately add a new sportsman or woman to the mix in the process.

Below is a simple seasoning blend for 1 lb. of ground venison or venison/pork combination.

-Thoroughly and evenly mix with ground meat. For best results, let sit for at least 1 hour.

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage.
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme.
• 11teaspoon brown sugar.
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt.
• 1 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds.
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes.
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder.

This blend is for 1 lb. of venison or venison/pork combination.