Along comes a venison roast

Last week, my mother in law’s family bestowed a good-sized piece of venison on us, a bone-in shoulder roast with a thin sheen of fat on top. I knew low and slow was the way to go on this one, but I wanted feedback from Bite and Booze founder and competitive chef Jay Ducote, who hunts often and writes for us from time to time at 225. I emailed a couple of shots of my roast to Jay, who confirmed its provenance (shoulder, akin to a Boston Butt on a pig) and validated my plan of attack: browning, adding plenty of stock and aromatic vegetables and roasting it covered. I wanted pull-apart texture, so I opted for cooking it at 225 degrees overnight in the oven for 12 hours. As for aromatics, I added several grilled onion halves, toes of garlic, celery, carrots and lots of fresh rosemary. Jay also suggested sweet potatoes and blackberries, which makes perfect sense because sweeter flavors need to be in on the action with venison. I opted for sweet potatoes and some diced tomatoes, the latter of which is key ingredient in barbacoa, one of my favorite pork shoulder preparations. I used beef stock and red wine as my cooking liquid and I added considerably more than I would have with a pot roast of beef to break down venison’s characteristic tight fibers. You can reduce the liquid into an appealing sauce once the roast is done, but the low fat content here means you can also opt for using the jus unadulterated. The result was tender and mildly woodsy, a perfect foil for wild rice and sautéed Swiss chard from my kitchen garden drizzled with the Red Stick Spice Company’s peach balsamic vinegar.

Thanks Jay, for sharing your spot-on thoughts. We look forward to your forthcoming cookbook.

Readers, please email and let me know how you’re cooking game.