Hi Jackie, could you possibly pass on your favorite deer meat recipe for chili and stew??? I’m going to attempt to work on my frozen leg of deer this weekend, and I’d love to try your recipes. I’d like to can it as well, so processing times would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for always answering my many questions.

Andrea Del Gardo
Myrtle Beach, SC

Sure Andrea, I’ll give you a recipe but I’ll warn you that I’m NOT a recipe cook; I add this and that and taste it along the way until it’s right. But these recipes will put you in the ball park. Unless you have a meat grinder made for grinding fresh meat (NOT the little “meat grinders” people have in their kitchen drawer), your chili will be chunky chili and that’s pretty good. If you do have a larger meat grinder and want to make burger chili, here’s a hint: meat grinds and cuts much better when it is still partly frozen; not hard but with ice crystals still in it.

CHILI

5 pounds ground or diced venison
2 C chopped onions
1 clove garlic, minced
12 C canned tomatoes with juice
3 C dry or canned kidney beans
1/2 C chili powder (as hot as you like it)
1 1/2Tbsp salt]
1 hot red pepper, chopped or ground fine (I like chipotle because of the smoky rich taste)

If using dry beans, rinse beans, put in twice as much water as beans in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, then let stand, covered for 2 hours. If using canned beans, proceed at once.

Brown meat in a large heavy pot. Drain off excess fat, if any. Add onions and garlic and stir while cooking until they are tender. Add remaining ingredients, including drained beans. (Note: if you like less acidic chili, add brown sugar to taste.) Ladle hot chili into hot jars leaving 1 inch headroom. Wipe rim clean, place previously simmered lid on jar and screw down ring firmly tight. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, consult your canning manual for directions in increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary.

VENISON STEW

5 pounds cubed stew meat, cut into 1″ pieces
1 Tbsp oil
3 quarts cubed peeled potatoes
2 quarts sliced or chunk carrots
3C chopped celery
3 C chopped onions
2 quarts tomato sauce (optional)
1 1/2 Tbp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
spices to taste

Brown meat in oil. Combine meat, vegetables and seasonings in a large saucepot and cover with either water or tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; do not boil further. Ladle hot stew into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headroom. Remove any air bubbles. Wipe rim of jar clean, place hot, previously simmered lid on jar and screw down ring firmly tight. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. (See altitude information above.)

If the “deer leg” you have is a shoulder, it should give you enough for either one of these recipes. Not quite enough? Just use less meat or round out the amount with beef. If it is a hind quarter, you’ll have much more meat; enough to make a batch of each, or either doubled. The best of luck! — Jackie

Jackie,
Just letting you know we took your advice and canned meat with GREAT success. Easy, just like you said it would be and we had great results. Thanks for the encouragment.

katherine carter
coeur d alene, ID 83814

I’m so glad you had good luck with your first attempt at canning meat.  I wish everyone knew what we know!  Everyone loves my canned meat, especially venison! — Jackie

I’ve been a little busier than usual these last three days. David went down to hunt with his brother, Bill, and his friends near Oak Lake. And he came back Monday with 180 pounds of venison, in quarters, in the trunk of his new-to-him car. Luckily, Bill has huge, heavy duty contractors’ bags, so the trunk didn’t get all nasty.

No. It wasn’t David’s buck this time. Bill’s friend, Andy, had shot a big nine pointer. Of course he wanted the antlers, but they had just butchered a steer and are hunting an area where you are allowed 5 deer. Five deer! Mostly, Andy wants to continue to hunt and doesn’t need the meat, so he sent his deer up to me. Thanks Andy!!!

And not one to look a gift deer in the mouth, I set about cutting it up the day after I got it. I’m a little slow and a lot picky. So I can only do about a quarter of a deer a day, including canning it up. The first day I did a hind quarter and the back straps. I made a big batch of jerky out of that batch so that I could get it dehydrated in time to send some back to Andy and the “boys” at hunting camp this weekend. (All Andy wanted from his deer was a “quart jar full of jerky”.) I made terriyaki jerky this time. And I used a backstrap and some nice rump meat, sliced across the grain to make it tender. I don’t use poor cuts for my jerky!

I had three pans in front of me when I cut; one for stew meat and roasting chunks, one for jerky slices and one for yucky parts.

To make my jerky, I used 1 c soy sauce, 1 Tsp garlic powder, 1 Tsp onion powder, 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, 1/2 c brown sugar, mixed well. I poured this over my meat, which I had sliced about 1/4″ thick. Then I mixed it well and covered it and let it sit in the fridge all afternoon. You can leave it overnight, but my generator only runs at night so I needed to use my dehydrator then.

I lifted one piece at a time out of the bowl when I was ready, letting it drip well. Then I spread them in a single layer on the dehydrator trays, stacking the trays until it was all ready. I plugged in the dehydrator and let it dry all evening. It was almost ready that night, but I took the whole works out on our unheated porch for the night and next day and brought it in the next night to finish up. Of course when it was done I let David be my taste tester. He gave it a 2 thumbs up, then I tried a piece. Not bad. If I get to eat any more!

I did the third leg, a front shoulder tonight and canned that all up as stew meat, which is what I use most. David has a karate tournament tomorrow morning and we will be driving down to meet him. He went down tonight so he can hunt with the “big boys” tomorrow morning. So we’re having a full weekend! But with an inch or two of snow on the ground, we know that winter is just around the corner and are getting in as much as we can. Things are kind of seasonal here; I don’t like driving far with my 91 year old mother in the car.

I’ll finish up the rest of the deer tomorrow night. It looks so nice lined up on my pantry shelves in the basement. Now if David could just get his deer…… With Mom, me hunting this year is out of the question; she can’t be left alone that long. But like all things, we’ve learned to adjust.