Nothing soothes the soul this time of year — especially considering our collective trauma of 2020 — like a warm, rib-sticking bowl of beef stew. One bite it all it takes to bring most of us to our happy place.
But if you’re looking to make good use of that 10-point buck grandpa bagged this deer season, venison can be a perfect stand-in for that beef brisket or chuck roast you’d normally toss in the pot — with a caveat. Venison is much leaner than beef, so to get the richness found in beef stews, you must add fat. Lots and lots of fat.
This week we’re stewing up three pots of rib-sticking venison in a classic trio of flavors. Our venison birria gets a boost of fat and flavor from chorizo sausage, while oodles of bacon and olive oil help grease the skillet in our venison beef bourguignon. Our venison-based Irish stew is all about the butter.
On ExpressNews.com: Chuck’s Food Shack: How to make beef birria tacos at home
In all three dishes, the extra fat helps replace a lot of the mouthfeel and flavor-carrying properties of fat that’s lost when game meat is used instead of beef. The results don’t feel oily or greasy though, as the additional fat is only replacing what’s missing from the meat.
There are a few things to keep in mind when stewing venison. And part of that is starting with the right cut.
Leave the tender backstrap to the grill here and opt instead for cuts from the neck, shoulder or leg. Depending on your source, those may be labeled as chuck or round roasts, as with beef.
You can’t cook venison at the same high temperatures as beef, or it will dry out. Our birria cooks in a relatively cool oven at 275 degrees. The bourguignon and Irish stew both simmer over a very low and gentle flame.
On ExpressNews.com: With Texas deer hunting season open, here’s how to cook all that venison
Many stew recipes call for alcohol in some form, be it beer, wine or hard spirits. And the popular wisdom is that booze helps break down tough protein, which seems like a no-brainer with venison. Unfortunately, science doesn’t support that. In reality, alcohol can “seal” the exterior of the meat and prevent the surface from soaking up any other flavors.
What booze does help with in stews is binding with both fat and water molecules in the pot to enhance the overall aromatic experience of each dish. It’s a cup of Negra Modelo in our birria, a bottle of Guinness (of course) in the Irish stew and red wine in the beef bourguignon. The cooking time is long enough in each recipe that the alcohol won’t impede the meat from tenderizing.
And in all three cases, reserve enough wine or beer to pair with each dish. Cheers to that.
Paul Stephen is a food and drink reporter and restaurant critic in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. To read more from Paul, become a subscriber. pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen
The Link LonkNovember 12, 2020 at 01:15AM
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How to substitute venison for beef this deer season in beef stews Birria, Bourguignon and Irish Stew - San Antonio Express-News
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