Fall Feast

It's fall here in Kansas City. The leaves have left their lofty perches high up in the tall oak trees. The squirrels, mindful of last winter's thick blankets of snow, are manic in their quest to bury all available acorns and nuts and fortify their leafy nests with even more insulation. It also means men of all ages and occupations set off into the woods to hunt. Wild game of all sorts is plentiful in the wood and fields of Missouri and Kansas and white tailed deer is certainly no exception. So when offered fresh meat from a recent hunt I jumped at the chance to fill my oven and my freezer.

First I whipped out my vacuum sealer and dropped a huge venison loin in a mixture of soy sauce and brown sugar, sealed it up and let it have a good long soak overnight. All the other roasts and loins also were vacuum sealed and snuggled into the chest freezer. The next day I released the loin from it's bath and sliced it in half. I decided to roast one half wrapped in bacon. The other half I cut into chunks for stew. Venison is a very lean meat and adding a fat will help keep the meat from drying out.

Enveloped in bacon and secured with tooth picks, the loin goes into a 350 degree oven for roughly twenty to thirty minutes depending on how rare or medium you enjoy your meat. I went twenty in the oven and then fifteen minutes on a hot grill to crisp up the bacon. Plus I like how the grill adds a bit of a smokey flavor.

A young visitor on a play date with my hounds gets her first smell of roasting venison. Looks like Bugbee likes it!

Who wouldn't? Look at that moist meat!

I quickly whipped up some rich scalloped potatoes to go with the moist venison. The meat was juicy with just a hint of sweetness that balanced out the venison flavor. It was a succulent feast and a wonderfully seasonal meal. My one regret was not making the cranberry and walnut dish I've got waiting in the wings for Thanksgiving. The flavor of the meat with the richness of the potatoes would have paired up wonderfully with the crunchy tang of the cranberries and rounded out the flavors of the entire dish. Still I'm thankful to the hunter for the wonderful opportunity to make this meal.