Ok it really is this simple.
Using you meat beating mallet on the rough side- take your venison steaks from your deer hindquarters (non-loin, no beating required for those). Beat your meat as thin and wide as you can, so that it fits on a nice Ciabatta Roll. This may also really expose any silver skin, which makes it easy to cut around... (These will now look just like "cube steaks" you can get at the supermarket). Take your favorite season and rub it into both sides. (I happened to use something called "Road Kill Grill").
A light coating of cooking spray each side, set the steaks aside when done...
In a skillet, a dash of olive oil, cut as much onion as you care to eat on your sandwiches, even toss in some minced garlic if you wish... Lightly sauté that so that its done around the time your steaks are grilled...
Now on medium-low heat, Grill those steaks, just a few minutes each side and done... Cover with AMERICAN cheese, and grill your CIABATTA rolls lightly to for a little crisp in the inside while the cheese melts.
Load up those CIABATTA rolls with the onions, cover with as much steak as you can eat... A little ketchup, and you are about to experience heaven on a bun... You be "likin' it" for sure.
Now - I promise you, you will not get a better cheesesteak on the planet if you do it like that...
My venison cheesesteak is the BEST there is - but this thread is NOT debate free so please, try and top that!
Once you go pepper jack, you never go back, Jack!
Sounds easy and good.
Thanks for the ideas.
I'd also like to let all here know that Jack has a bit of a leg up on the rest of us because I grew up in New Jersey, and while there are a LOT of things about it that I'd never want to live there again, the ablilty to get REAL, Italian bread ain't one of 'em! Truth is, many people don't know what real Italian bread really is. They THINK they know, but they have no idea. In Chicago you can find it but it's rare and you will pay for it. In New Jersey you can get it any any corner store or market. Same with genuine REAL imported provolone cheese. I finally found a store here that carries it (Fresh Market), but they get it from a distributor in...guess where...NEW JERSEY!
I'd only add one thing to your recipe.....
Take those Ciabatta rolls and make garlic bread with them before you crown them with the venison.
I just ate dinner but you've made me hungry again!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, thin, tender, grilled med.-rare, sliced home grown tomato, slightly toasted roll, beer so cold it hurts my teeth...wouldn't suck!
Interesting prospects with such a thing, Jack...very interesting.
Or you could add a little au jus and have a Jersey Dip sandwich?
You lost me at, "beat your meat as thin and wide as you can" :-)
But to give Jack his due, what he's described here sounds REAL good...maybe he just shouldn't have called it a cheesesteak! (Kinda like people in Chicago raving about their pizza. It's good, but it AIN'T a New York style pizza!!!)
Good heavens...it's starting to sound like a broadhead debate!!!
Sorry, that's Omorossa :)
Sounds like a great sandwich...but I agree, add peppers and no ketchup!
my best effort yet
Grind bacon in with the venison. Work in some Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce. Make patties and season with BBQ rub.
Chunk up a red onion and place in grill wok, add a little olive oil and Sweet Baby Ray’s and mix. While grilling some sliced bacon, saute the onions until the onions just start to soften up. Add thin sliced Boar’s Head turkey to the wok and a little more Sweet Baby Ray’s…heat and mix.
Top burgers with onion, turkey, bacon, and freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese….
#1- I better get to the bakery and get me some real rolls. (None of the supermarket 6 pack buns allowed!)
Jack Harris- In regards to hunting and beating meat,,,,, DIY all the way!!!!!! LOL!
And I hope I am not highjacking, but I made some linguica sausage (venison of course) for the first time this weekend. Stuffed in hog casing for brat sized sausages. I can see them going well on sourdough or ciabatta with sauerkraut. (I went half and half on batch, fresh sausage and lightly smoked.)
We can't be having such things.
At least tell us you shot the deer with a crossbow, over a corn pile, with a Rage broadhead and you were aiming for the liver on purpose! :-)
go look up "pops brine" and use it but cut the salt by a 1/3
cure for 14 days then slow smoke it overy hickory or pecan.
the let cool in fridge overnight and slice thin and it make a fantastic sammich.
carefully de-bone a hamd from a young deer (5 - 19 months ie a fawn/yearling is best) leaving the femur bone channel open and the meat in one piece
collect any scraps and trimmings, and place in the bone cavity, with 4-6 peeled garlic cloves and a few sprigs of fresh basil, add some kosher salt (1/4 cup) and sew the ham back together using a clean curved carpet needle and cotton sacking thread (I save the cotton thread from feed sacks, wash and dry it for this)
soak the meat overnight in a plastic or glass pan (a smallish plastic cooler works) in brine made with the following:
1 pound kosher salt
2 pounds dark brown sugar
3 gallons warm water
place meat in brine and add:
1, 8 pound bag of ice
3 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons rubbed sage
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 large (1.5 liter) bottle of dry red wine
this is enough brine for 3 yearling or 4 fawn hams
though if you don't have that many you can substitute enough turkey breasts, whole roasting chickens, (or young feral hog hams done up the same way) etc
place in smoker with low coals or on a medium low setting and water pan ...try to keep the smoker temp btw 220 and 250 degrees for 6 to 8 hours....
DO NOT wrap in foil and DO not allow heat to get much over 250 degrees F and be sure to keep water in the pan....
if you can get them, use freshly fallen hickory NUTS, with the outer, fleshy hulls, for smoke, failing that use soaked or green wood from locust tree ROOTS, apple wood, or as a last resort, green hickory wood....... good smoker wood is the key... it's worth the effort to find these items
before removing from smoker, check that internal temp reached >180 degrees F
after smoking, chill to <40 degrees F, for at least 12 hours before slicing.... shave very thin, and package in ziploc bags and freeze for later use (if you have any left, lol)
you can reduce the brine volume and etc if you don't have a big smoker or enough meat, but if you're gonna do the effort, you really should try and make a lot...
Craig
The price of your book just went up to $20.
It'll cost you $15 if autographed. :-)
Jack...stick with simple. If it takes longer in prep time than eatin' time, it's not worth it.
Literally seconds ago I was writing a cookbook chapter about the night I had two does down as a heavy snow was falling, working in the dome cast by two Coleman lanterns. My ol' Lab was laying there, getting covered in snow but his wagging tail (awaiting a few scraps) kept the ground clear in a V-shaped area behind him. It's my best memory of that entire hunting season.
The amount of satisfaction and anticipation I felt that night was as much fun as the hunt.
I've come to feel the kill is really just the half-time of the hunting experience. For me, I want to process the meat and eventually cook and consume ever ounce of it...with plenty of horseradish, of course!
Really glad to see so many guys are also so serious about enjoying the meat, without taking the cop-out for putting it all in jerky or sausage. :-(
I am gonna follow this post with my canning instructions, in toto
The method I use is my own and works for me. I make no representation as to its safety or suitability beyond the fact that it does work well for me. I assume no responsibility or liability for accident, illness, or injury resulting from use or misuse of these instructions. Rules: 1. Always use clean boiled CANNING JARS (no mayonnaise, pickle or mustard jars.) 2. Always use new, boiled, lids, designed for the jars you are using. 3. Always be sure your meat is clean, fresh, and safe. 4. Always use a pressure canner for canning meat. 5. Always process jars at least as long as the times given, at or above the pressures listed. 6. Never process meat using these instructions at over 4,000 feet above sea level. 7. Never use any canned product if seal is broken, lid is bulged, lid is rusted, or if there is any doubt as to its safety. 8. Never cut corners. 9. Never place frozen meat in jars. Meat can be cold but not frozen; jars will crack. 10. Never use damaged or chipped jars. Raw Pack: Deer meat chunks: place in (clean, scalded) wide-mouth quart pint, or three cup jars, force air out with wooden spoon, and fill to within 1 and 1½"of top of jar (just below shoulder) pour in 1teaspoon salt, if desired, clean rim, place lid, gently tighten rim. Deer spareribs: leave all meat on ribs, chop into 2-3" squares, place in jars same as meat chunks, except, top with 1 tablespoon sausage Seasoning. Clean rim. Place lid on jar. Deer Sausage: season and grind sausage to taste, roll into 2" balls, drop in jars, press in with wooden spoon to force out air, fill to within 1 and ½" of rim. Clean rim. Place lid on jar. Deer burger: same as above. Deer-n-pig: my favorite! Cut deer tenderloin (back-strap) and fresh pork tenderloin or lean fresh pork butt, into 2" cubes, place in jars as above, add 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon rubbed sage, Clean rim, place lid on jar. Do not add any liquid to raw-pack…. When a canner load of jars is full place in canner, with hot (not boiling) water. Boiling water will crack jars when cold. Increase heat until canner is at a rolling boil, then place lid, and set pressure. Use 10 psi up to 2,000 feet, 15 psi 2,000 to 4,000 feet. When canner reaches set pressure, start timing, hold at or above pressure for 90 minutes, or more. Longer times or higher pressure will cause sparerib bones to become cooked and "chalky". Process three cup capacity jars as quarts, pint jars 75 minutes at same pressures) Dressed, Scaled Fish , or fish fillets: same as Deer meat chunks. Dove Breast; same as deer meat chunks. Hot pack: Squirrel, rabbit, or chicken: Smoke whole dressed squirrels until done, cut into pieces and remove ribs, place in jars as tightly as possible, with 1 and ½" headspace, and cover with boiling beef bullion, clean rim, place lids on jars. Meat Stew: fill jars with stew to within 1 and ½" of rim, clean rim, place lids on jars.
Deer meat chunks: cook meat in salted water until fork-tender, place in jars, within 1 and ½" of rim, cover with broth, clean rims, place lids on jars. Sausage patties: Fry sausage patties, until done thru, drain grease, place in jars within 1 and 1/2" of rim, cover with beef bullion, clean rims and place lids on jars. Place hot-pack jars in boiling water in canner, and return to a boil, place lid on canner, and process at least 60 minutes at 10 psi at up to 2,000 feet; 15 psi 2,000 to 4,000 feet
Addendum for >4,000 Above Sea Level: "It's important that you know your altitude.. Don't use process times recommended for canning food at sea level if you live at altitudes above 1,000 feet. Water boils at lower temperatures as altitude increases. Lower boiling temperatures are less effective for killing bacteria. You must increase either the process time or canner pressure to make up for lower boiling temperatures. Because altitude affects pressure and the boiling point of liquid, adjustments must be made when canning foods at altitudes of 1,000 feet above sea level or higher. When using the pressure canner method, pressure must be increased. If using a dial-gauge pressure canner, process foods at 12 pounds pressure for altitudes between 2,000 and 4,000 feet and at 13 pounds pressure for altitudes between 4,000 and 6,000 feet. If using the weight-gauge pressure canner, use 15 pounds of pressure rather than 10." 15PSI is good for up to 6,000 feet ....add ten minutes to processing times for elecvations over 4,000 feet (ie: 100 minutes) I'd be skittish about home-canning meat at all above that, since most canners max out at 15 PSI
all I do is proof-read, update, and cut and paste
The next time you're teaching one of those classes in the great Wichita area, please let me know, OK? :-)
I have wanted to learn how to can things. My boss says we need to can a lot of the stuff that I write, but I think that's a different process.
If not, and you really want to try it, get a "Ball Blue Book", a good late-model, brand name pressure canner (not a pressure cooker, and some mason jars and lids, study the book some, PM me for my phone number, and I can walk you through the process on the phone for your first batch or two.
I think you have confessed to plagiarizing yourself. (OK, I realize you did not think I knew words that big):)
Anyway, since you were on probation before, you are now on double secret probation. :)
Michael, does the book come with horseradish?
I am one of those guys that is always digging up old recipes in my 1970-1980's F&S and OL magazines....Ted Trueblood, Sylvia Bashline etc. Good Stuff
Fuzzy, I wasn't expecting you to come to Kansas. Just a poor attempt at humor on my part.
Stick...send me an e-mail at mpearce @ wichitaeagle.com, about mid-October and we'll get you fixed up.
but seriously, if you want to try canning, my offer stands, I'll walk you through it by phone. in fact, if you're buying new equipment, I'll help you shop. That offer goes for anyone here in the BS family who is serious about learning the process and doesn't have access to a mentor or class, and is daunted by the idea. It's too useful a skill NOT to have IMO
here's last night's effort and today's sammich contest entry:
a thick slice of venison sausage meatloaf made with shredded zucchini, heated in oilve oil in a hot CI skillet on both sides until seared a bit... on a toasted buttered wheat bun, melted mozzerella cheese and with sliced garden fresh (like less than half hour off the vine) tomato slices... no sauces added...none needed
3 pounds venison breakfast sausage
4 large eggs
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 sleeve saltine crackers, crumbled
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8 cup mild pickled peppers, chopped finely
2 tablespoons coarse black pepper
1/2 cup smoky barbecue sauce
in large mixing bowl combine all ingredients except black pepper and barbecue sauce, knead together well, cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours, overnight is better
place in large loaf pan (as for 2 pound bread loaf) or two small loaf pans, bake 75 minutes @ 350 degrees F, then dust tops generously with the black pepper and brush on the barbecue sauce, return to oven and cook til done (about another 20-30 minutes, )
I use it heavy when I have a big gumbothon (4 gallons, with wild turkey legs and thighs for the base) and when I do a 5 vegetable stir-grill in a basket kinda like Panhandle's.
I know - hard to believe there would any leftover tenderloin... It was only 5 slices...
Down to one package of loin, one ground, and one sausage... Season is 4 weeks away!
I fired up the grill, and heated up my cast iron griddle.
Once hot, I put a little olive oil down and dumped a pint of canned venison onto griddle. I sprinkled with some Italian seasoning mix. At the same time, I put some sliced peppers, onions and mushrooms on griddle to sauté.
Since the meat is already cooked, for the most part I am just heating it. (I use the metal spatula to break up the meat while heating)
On the side, I am toasting an Italian roll.
I after a couple of minutes, I dumped some marinara sauce on meat and then add at least two slices of Provolone. (per sandwich)
Scoop up the meat w/melted cheese onto roll and add veggies to the top.
Enough meat and veggies for ~ 3 sandwiches.
Simple, quick, and you won't be disappointed.
Sorry no pics, I couldn't wait to eat up!
Good stuff guys.