How To Tenderize Venison (3 Effective Methods)

How to tenderize venison meat is your headache when you are going to cook them, and lack of this information, your cooking experience becomes dull. Then walk with me in this article and know the best three methods of venison tenderization.

I am an extreme meat lover, and there is no hard and fast choice to taste any meat. That can be beef, buffalo, turkey, or chicken. 

But I love the best venison meat because it has an excellent taste that you won’t find in any other meat. 

But, when I’m cooking the venison there, I faced a challenge to tender them. This is why I have done some experiments with venison meat and gathered some knowledge by studying to make it superbly tenderized. 

Here, I’m going to share all of my experiments and knowledge with you about it. Let’s roll the ball. 

How To Tenderize Venison Using Mechanical & Thermal Methods

The first method which I have learned is using the mechanical and thermal tool to tender venison. This is a straightforward and simple method to use, even for the novice cook. 

Let’s reveal the step by step process.

Step 1- Slice the meat ¾” against the grain

Take a raw meat cutting knife and cut the meat against the grain because this cutting reduces tough muscle fiber. The shorter the muscle fiber, the faster and fruitful the tenderization process will be. 

Step 2- Spread the slices on wax paper

After making the meat ready, now spread them on wax paper. Then pick up a rolling pin or heavy skillet and start to pound the meat slice for a few minutes. 

When you hit the meat, it makes the venison softer, thinner and breaks the tough muscle fiber which binds the meat.

Do this pounding reversely for the second side of the venison.

Step 3- Make some score at the ¾” interval

After completing the above two steps, if you find that the meat is hard and needs to be more tender, then with a knife, make some score to loosen the venison’s attached tough collagen fiber. This is the end of my first method of venison tenderization. 

Tenderize Venison Using Single-Ingredient Venison Tenderizers

You know baking soda is a very much used cooking ingredient in your kitchen. This also has a reputation for cleaning many kitchen utensils. 

Today, I’ll share with you another use of baking soda, which is a venison tenderization ingredient. 

Let’s reveal the step by step process.

Step 1- Sprinkle baking soda on venison

Baking soda does a fantastic job of tenderizing deer meat steak. First, properly sprinkle some baking soda on the surface of the venison. Then rub the soda with your finger to mix it with the meat. Do the same thing for both sides of the venison.

Step 2- Keep them two to three hours for rest

Now, let the venison rest for two to three hours in the refrigerator. Within this time, the baking soda will ideally get mixed with the deer meat and the baking soda’s alkalize loosen the meat fiber and make it hard to keep bonds together. 

Since the fiber bonds loosen, the meat will be tender when cooking. 

Step 3 – Rinse the meat

In this step, after completing the meat resting time frame take the deer meat and carefully rinse it under the sink’s faucet. Rinse it several times to remove all the attached baking soda from the venison. 

Step 4-  Wipe the water from the venison

After properly removing the baking soda by rinsing, wipe the water with a paper towel. 

Because if there is any water in the venison, the meat taste will decrease. After that, go to the primary cooking process. 

Related: Best Manual Meat Grinder For Deer (Top 5 Picks)

How To Tenderize Venison By Marinating With Tenderizing Ingredients

Marination is another popular way to get better flavor, taste, and smell to your cooking meat. 

That’s why my third method is to marinate the venison with some ingredients to make them better tenderized. 

Not only that, I have also used a few of these ingredients to marinate frozen chicken when I tried to cook a delicious chicken recipe for my younger daughter. Let’s reveal the step by step process.

Step 1- Make ready the marinating ingredients

Take one cup of kiwi, two teaspoons of soya sauce, two teaspoons of tomato sauce, two teaspoons of worcestershire sauce, and two garlic cloves. 

Now chopped the kiwi, minced the garlic cloves, and then mixed up all the ingredients in a soup bowl.

Note- if you don’t like to use kiwi, you can use pineapple or papaya instead of kiwi.  

Step 2 – Soak the venison to the marinating ingredients

Now take the venison and soak them into the marinating paste that you have made in step 1. Keep the meat overnight to marinate the venison meat properly.

Step 3 – Start cooking

In the morning, you will get a highly tenderized venison meat ready to go to your stove or grill to offer you a delicious venison recipe. Now, take the venison steak and start cooking.

Some Warnings

To err is human; hopefully, you are very much familiar with this sentence. If you keep alert and consciously perform your duty, you can minimize this error and make your life more comfortable, enjoyable, and happy. 

So here is a list of warnings that you must avoid while following venison tenderization’s methods.

• Always carefully handle with a sharp knife to avoid cutting yourself.
• When you follow method one and pound the venison meat, wear hand gloves to ensure your finger’s safety. If you unconsciously drop a pound on your finger, you will not get hurt.
• At method 2, properly rinse the baking soda or it will ruin your meat taste. And you also find a foul odor to your meat. 
• Don’t use baking soda into the deer meat because it spreads a weird bitter taste.
• At method 3, use marinating ingredients in the proportion of venison meat. Over or under, the amount of marinating ingredients won’t properly tenderize the meat. 

Related: How To Grind Venison (Simple 5 Ways)

Which Method Is Easiest Out Of These Three

I have followed all the three methods of venison tenderization at different times. But out of these three methods I like to use method two because it takes less time, effort, and ingredients. How simple the easy process method two is! 

I only need baking soda and let it rest for two to three hours. All is done. Amazing.

But method one and method three need more time, energy, and effort when comparing them with method 2. 

Related: How To Tell If Deer Meat Is Spoiled

What Do You Soak Venison In To Tenderize?

Naturally, the deer meat has a wild taste on it after slaughtering and cutting into small pieces. 

First, to remove this wild taste, make a mixture of water and half a cup of vinegar. Now, soak the deer meat into this mixture for two hours.

After this time limit, remove the meat from water and rinse them in clean water and cover it with fresh milk. Your deer meat is thoroughly tenderized to offer you a mouthwatering recipe. 

Can You Soak Venison In Vinegar If Yes? How Long?

Yes, you can soak deer meat in a mixture of vinegar and water for two hours. This vinegar soaking helps you to tenderize your deer meat and also removes  the gamey flavor from the meat.

How Long Can You Soak Venison Meat In Milk?

Soaking deer meat in milk is another popular way to tender it. For soaking the meat in milk, you have to follow a simple process. 

First, take the milk and pour it into a bowl. Soak the deer meat for up to 12 hours in the milk and wrap the bowl with a plastic wrapper or a lid. Then keep it in the refrigerator. 

What Takes The Gamey Taste Out Of Venison? 

Soaking the venison in buttermilk helps you to remove the gamey taste from it. There are a lot of blood clots in the raw venison. 

To create buttermilk, make a mixture of regular fresh milk and vinegar and soak the venison overnight. It will help to pull the blood clot from the meat to eradicate gamey flavor.

Is It Important To Tenderize Venison

Deer are wild animals; that’s why it has a wild odor in its meat. So when you tender the meat, it helps to remove the unfavorable odor from the meat. 

If you notice very carefully, you will find many blood clots in the deer meat after slaughtering. Proper tenderization helps to open the blood clot to wash them away.

Sometimes you find that some deer’s meat won’t correctly be cooked though you cook them for a longer time. It happens because of meat’s aged muscle fiber. 

So when you tenderize the meat before cooking, it helps to loosen the muscle fiber to get into all the meat’s spices and heat. As a result, you can enjoy spicy and juicy venison meat. 

The Most Popular Venison Recipe Ideas You Must Try

After learning the more straightforward and faster three venison tenderization methods, you must look for some venison recipes to cook, right? So I thought, “Why not share the five most popular recipes that I usually tried at home. 

Let’s know the famous, quick, and easy venison recipes to taste on a busy day. 

Grilled Venison Steak Recipe

There you will find many ways to cook your deer meat. But grilling is the top priority among all generations. If you are very much fond of grilling food, then you can try grilled venison steak. 

This recipe is straightforward and doesn’t require too much time and ingredients to cook. Only by using four to five ingredients and 20-30 minutes, you can grill the venison steak. 

To prepare your grilling steak, just marinate the steaks with apple cider vinegar for 20 minutes and grill them for 15 minutes. Now your savory grilling venison steaks are ready to taste. 

Homemade Venison Jerky Recipe

Do you like to eat jerky more than any other meat dish? If so, don’t forget to try the homemade venison jerky recipe. 

You can get three (spicy, sweet, or salty) flavors by cooking venison jerky. Even if you want, you can make a combination of these three flavors to your jerky recipe. 

Oh, yes, it takes a little bit longer (almost 12 hours) time and many kinds of ingredients to cook jerky. 

So before planning to grill venison jerky, keep some extra time to your hand to slice meat for jerky, do not hurry and lose patience while cooking. 

Venison Burger Recipe

This time I will share my favorite venison recipe with you. I have tried grilling venison burgers in many ways, and this below described recipe is so far the best. You can give this recipe a shot to take your taste buds for a ride. 

For cooking this recipe, I used oil, minced garlic cloves, worcestershire sauce, egg, provolone cheese, salt, pepper, and preferred toppings. 

Within a short time and less preparation, you can enjoy this venison burger. What can be more convenient than less time preparation? WOW!

Chicken-Fried Venison Backstrap Recipe

Fried rice with fried chicken is another golden match combination of mouthwatering dinner. Isn’t it? 

So try the chicken fried venison backstrap recipe for your next time yummy dinner or as an evening snack. 

Earlier in my first venison tenderizing process, I have told you that you can make some ¾” score or backstrap to tenderize the venison meat.  

By following this method after tenderizing your venison and adding some chicken, egg, and simple ingredients, you can cook a chicken-fried venison backstrap recipe. 

This is a delicious and high protein food to give you energy and also help build your muscle. Not only that, if you have kids, they will enjoy it much better than any other food. 

Venison Roast Recipe

Have you ever tried venison roast instead of chicken? If yes, then you know how excellent and delicious the food is! 

But if you haven’t tried, then this time, after harvesting a deer, you must try it. I can assure you that you will fall in love with this extreme zesty, yummy, and delicious roast recipe. 

Yes, the roasted venison takes only 15 minutes to prepare, but it takes 8-10 hours to complete the whole cooking process. 

That means it’s a time-consuming recipe. Still, the flavor will make up the effort you have given when cooking.