Venison Steak 101

Anyone that reads this blog and knows anything about me, knows that I take my steaks and grilling serious. I don't like chewing on shoe leather and nothing brings a tear to my eye faster than someone ruining a perfectly good steak. The second worst thing to me is seeing someone not know how to use a grill. So! hopefully after this little lesson there will never be a bad steak again.

See that beauty right there in the picture? Yes, yes you do. That is a venison steak and they are fantastic when cooked correctly. Don't ever let another person give you some half-ass excuse like "venison is gamey" or some other crock of crap.

If you're not sure what part of the animal the meat is coming from, take this time and get yourself acquainted with the picture above. People, this is a deer. Deer, you aren't just gruesome roadkill but also delicious dinner.

Venison steaks are very lean (which consequently also makes them easy to ruin) and they're not pumped full of hormones and chemicals like those packages of disappointment and lies you'll find at your grocery store.

There are plenty of ways to make a venison steak but for now, we'll just start with a simple grilling marinating and grilling method.

Stuff you'll need:

- 1-2 lbs of venison steaks
- Your favorite kind of BBQ sauce
- Worcester sauce
- Black pepper
- Garlic

Instructions:

Now, there are plenty of ways to make a steak as I mentioned but some ways I use with different recipes but I'll get into that later. For now, easiest way to grill a good venison steak in a marinade and still keep it tender.

1. Create your marinade by mixing bbq sauce and worcester sauce in a tupperwear container that will fit the steaks without having them on top of each other. Make the mix fairly thin. Then add in your garlic and black pepper to taste. You can add salt if you'd like but I normally don't due to there being plenty of salt in the worcester sauce.

2. Put the steaks in the marinade container, making sure that BOTH sides are covered in marinade. Then let them sit at room temperature for 30-45 minutes or in the fridge for a couple hours. Don't make up excuses that you're hungry right this instant or don't have time to wait. Yes you do, grab a beer, a small snack and shut the hell up, these steaks will be worth it.

**Note - for this recipe I do not tenderize the meat or poke holes in the meat with a fork. I feel it turns out better without doing that for this recipe, unless I'm wrapping the meat in bacon, which will be in a recipe after this.**

3. Hopefully I don't have to explain how a grill works and if you're doing this you already know how. I will say, if your grill is a flaming inferno, do not put the steaks on yet. You don't need to be eating a piece of charcoal.

Anyway, at this point, put the steaks on the grill, uncovered. 3-5 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the steak. I can not stress enough DO NOT OVER COOK the venison. It is ok to have a medium-rare to medium(pink inside) venison steak. It is better that way. And please, please.... please. Don't cut the steak open on the grill to see if it's done. Trust yourself, and this recipe.

4. Take the steaks off the grill and let set for 10 minutes before cutting into them. This allows the juice to settle into the meat thus making a really tender, tasty steak. This part is important too. Don't get all impatient at the very last step. This is the last step to a fantastic steak. Don't fail yourself now.

Enjoy!