The Deerslayer's Wife
Embracing the Hunting Lifestyle
Bacon-Wrapped Garlic Venison Roast
- One of the things I admire most about my deerslayer and his philosophy about hunting is his respect for nature, his respect for the animal, and his appreciation for the right that we have to harvest our own food. I appreciate how he taught our daughters to never hunt anything that you don’t intend to eat. And that harvesting the deer humanely is more decent than allowing them to overpopulate and ulimately starve. I agree with his attitude that processing meat is something that we can do at home. By doing it at home, you know how fresh your meat is, that it’s YOUR meat, and you can package it up the way you need it for your recipes.
This entry needs to start with a tutorial; because I’m a deerslayer’s wife, a teacher, a homeschooling mom, and a huge proponent of not wasting what God has provided for us. I also have a propensity for sharing things in a step-by-step tutorial kind of way. A single venison hind quarter provides my family of four with four to five meals if the muscles are separated out. Many hunting families are not aware of the versatility of these cuts. The meat is discarded because it is considered tough and too difficult to prepare.
WAKE UP! There’s so much more that can be done to provide deerslayers’ families with freezers FULL of meal options that are lean, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, and food that YOU have provided for YOUR family!
My deerslayer and I have taken a few photos of a venison hind quarter during processing to show the various muscles that can be used and, hopefully, provide some recipes that will work for your family.
The hind quarter provides four large muscles that can be used for different types of recipes.
The shank or lower leg meat is very sinewy and can either be placed in a vacuum bag with other like cuts of meat and frozen to be ground later or cooked all day (See my recipe for cook-all-day venison in “Come and Take It”).
After the meat has been skinned out, place it on a large cutting board, hip-side down. This allows you to see the different muscle groups.
You will be able to run your hand down between the muscles and separate them from each other by gently tearing away the connective tissue.
Follow the femur from the shank up through to the hip joint.
By carefully cutting this bone away, the large muscles will be visible and easy to package up for labeling (this is important as you’re scrounging around in the freezer in a few months wondering what the hell this mystery meat is), and freezing.
From one hind quarter, I am able to put away a muscle that, when silvery skin is removed, sears up very much like a tenderloin (it’ll feed about 2 people, but you’ll get another one from the other hind quarter!),
a muscle that can be pounded out for chicken-fried steaks, venison parmesean and the like, (It is also a good size for making whole-muscle jerky),
and another large muscle that can be used the same way or trussed up and used in the Bacon Wrapped Garlic Venison Roast Recipe .
The muscle that I usually use for a roast I refer to as a “football roast”. It is shaped like a football, and approximately 10 inches long. Unlike the other muscles in the hind quarter, it is rounded on the ends.
When making a roast, it is beneficial to leave all silvery skin or fascia intact. It will keep the juices from escaping during cooking. Also, it is imperative that after cooking, the meat must be allowed to rest for at least ten minutes. Depending on the meat, the fascia can be cut away after it is served and it must be served rare to medium rare, approximately 45 to 55 minutes at 350 degrees.
Bacon Wrapped Garlic Venison Roast
with Roasted Rosemary Root Veggies
1 venison “football” roast, approx. 3 lbs.
lots of chopped garlic, about 1/3 cup
Tommy’s Salt & Pepper Mix*
thick cut maple bacon, 3 slices
a bunch carrots, sliced
red potatoes, one per person, sliced thin
One onion, sliced thin
2-3 tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped or leaves
olive oil
more Salt & Pepper Mix
1 cup water or beef stock
Place roast on a rack cut side up, above a pan to catch drips. The fascia (silver skin surrounding the muscle) will hold in the juices as the meat cooks. Depending on the roast, the fascia can be eaten or cut away after serving.
Liberally season cavity in the meat with Salt & Pepper mix and garlic. (I have to admit that I use prepared garlic in a jar for this particular recipe. I’ve prepared this recipe using fresh garlic and I’ve prepared it using the stuff in the jar. There is so much garlic needed in this recipe that fresh garlic is a little overwhelming. Don’t get me wrong! The intense eye-popping flavor is right up the alley of my junior deerslayers. However, I find that the more subtle flavor of the prepared, chopped garlic allows the other flavors to come through.)
Truss roast. Season the top of the roast with more S & P mix and add more garlic. Cut 3 slices of bacon in half and lay over top of the roast.
Place in 350 degree oven for 45 to 55 minutes for a rare to medium rare roast. I’ve got to say at this point that if you don’t like rare to medium-rare meat, then don’t prepare this recipe. It simply doesn’t work if overcooked. The meat is tough and dry. Just don’t.
Let the meat sit for AT LEAST 10 minutes to rest, otherwise, all the meat juices will run out when you cut it. Serve with horseradish sauce. I simply mix 2 parts olive oil mayo with 1 part hot prepared horseradish.
Along with this recipe, in a 9×13 baking dish, toss sliced carrots, potatoes, and onions with S & P mix, olive oil to coat, and chopped rosemary. Add a little bit of water or stock to the pan (about a cup) and cook in the 350 degree oven with the roast. Both will be ready about the same time.
*Find Tommy’s Secret Salt & Pepper Mix in my August post.
The Deerslayer's Wife 
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You forgot to mention removing glands from the hind quarter. This gland is a white masty substance along the inside of the bone on the football sizes hind quarter. I don’t care much about the recipe as much as I do about taking care of the meat. That gland when cooked and cut into bitters and provides an off flavor in the meat.
You are absolutely correct. Because the meat I used in this recipe was from a doe, I neglected to mention the gland. I addressed the gland issue in my post, “Packaging and Labeling Venison Meat”, but it really did need to be mentioned in this post as well. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
The Deerslayer’s Wife
Thank you for the no-BS explanation here. My GF’s family is a crew of deerslayers that don’t cook. I’m the new guy musician/chef that loves game meat. I was gifted a whole hindquarter to get my bearings so I can put on a feast later (they slay deer at a high rate). I just followed your steps and I’ve got the football (sirloin) roast in the oven, and both rounds and a trio of rainbow trout about to hit the grill. I can already tell this is a home run. My kitchen smells like greatness. The cat is pacing around waiting for me to render unto Ceaser (if his name was Finnigan). So happy. Your underlying philosophy is great. God bless your heart. You give great information. Thank you. All my best to you and yours.
Deerslayers that don’t cook? Say it ain’t so! Sadly, it is often the case. And then the heavens open up and plop your musical/cheffy self down in the middle of this deerslayer family. You are truly a Godsend. How did the venison roast turn out? Did you serve it nice and rare? With horseradish? One thing that can always be said about that recipe is that it DOES make the house smell fabulous. We always serve up the bacon that was used to cover the roast as a nice little morsel. Thanks so much for the kind words and keep following. More recipes to come.
It turned out as awesome as possible, Definitely nice and rare. Right out of the oven, it was sooo goooood. I didn’t get to try it with the HR sauce until the next day cause I wanted my GF to make hers. It’s a lil done up and really great. She usually makes it with her potato cakes. She doesn’t like deer cause her ex husband forced it on her a lot and there’s bad things there, but I think she’s starting to come around. “It doesn’t have that gamey taste”. That’s the worry I always here. Clean kill on the deer, and good work in/on the kitchen/grill and forget that noise. Her little girls loved it too (we told them it was another beef roast….kids are fickle). I’m going to keep using your site to bring them back around. You truly give great info.
Now let me tell you about those two big steaks. I dropped those in a marinade I love for beef steaks. This sounds odd, but, so am I. Soy sauce, red wine vinegar, white rice wine, peanut oil, and a bit of sesame oil. I love Asian cooking and one of my online buddies from Thailand uses that with his game meats. It worked great when I did a bunch of loin steaks for some hunting buddies before. It worked amazing here. It was so good I couldn’t keep it. I just cut off the crusty end (my fav part) and gave the rest to my landlord/guy-that-taught-me-to-play-drums-and-lets-me-make-a-record-in-his-old-house. He’s disabled and money is tight. His docs have him on a brutal diet. So I do like drummers do and sneak him goodies. He enjoyed it mightily.
You, ma’am, have a fan. I put my blog in the details so you can see the work. I watched a ton of videos about how to deal with the hindie (what I call it now). Got some good good cutting advice from a couple, but yours really tied it all together for me. Only Mom’s can do that, really. You do wonderful work. Don’t ever stop. You can read my blog too. If you ever need advice on how to mic drums, dial in a evil sounding guitar distortion, or just want to cherry pick grilling ideas…feel free to.
God bless your wonderfulness.
P.S. Love the hat. Where can I get one? Might need to embarrass the GF. My attempts to get the clown jester guy to scare her during trick-or-treat were not quite up to my standards.
Wow, I’m so glad the roast worked out for you. My newest tip is to keep a zip bag in the freezer in which I throw all the tough end pieces of my roasts. The next time I prepare “cook-all-day” venison, I toss those pieces in and any sinewy bits. No waste. My junior deerslayers FAVORITE recipe is the one that I prepare the day after my roast. The venison tortas in Waste Not Want Not with sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions, avocado and melted cheese are pretty damned good.
By the way, I already have all the ingredients for your marinade. I can’t wait to try it. How long did you marinade the meat? A couple hours, over night?
If Deerslayer and the clan ever get a band together, I’ll know where to come for helpful hints. Ha ha! We’re not a particularly musically gifted bunch. But we do love our music!
So glad you’re enjoying what I have to offer. Keep reading and I’ll keep it coming!
God bless you right back.
P.S. For the picture, Junior Deerslayer was hiding behind me with the antlers. Shhhhhh!
Thanks for the advice. Just cut up my first hind quarter. Meat, knife,laptop – Everything one needs to get started. Thanks again.
Just like in the hunter/gatherer days! I’m glad you found my information helpful. I hope a couple of my recipes come in handy, as well. Keep me apprised of your progress. Hunt on!
Congrats Ms. Deerslayer on your fine job of butchering the hind quarter! I was cutting a venison carcass last fall and thought “hey … this would make a great how-to, blog post”
Well, looks like you beat me to the punch … 🙂
I may still do this next year though and, I’ll cross post to you 🙂
HAPPY NEW YEAR !!
WoW! This is such a huge compliment! Thank you very much. Deerslayer deserves a big chunk of the credit, though. Look for my upcoming post on processing nilgai. It’s a whole ‘nother thing, we’ve discovered.
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Your comment about the shank meat is correct, but the best use I’ve found is for canning. Just pressure can it without seasoning. When you use the meat it will be as tender as any on a deer, and finishes fast for a great stew.
You are absolutely right, Rick. The shank meat is highly underrated. Deerslayer and I were just discussing buying a pressure canner. I think, after your comments, that it would be well worth the investment.
You’re absolutely right, Rick. Deerslayer and I were just discussing investing in a pressure canner. Considering your comment, I believe that it would be well worth the money. Thanks. Stay posted for some additional information about shank meat upcoming.
As a huntress and the wife of a hunter as well as the blessed mom of three growing boys, I cannot stress enough how incredibly thankful I am for our family living off of what God has provided for us. I know when my family eats the meals prepared in this house, it is from the animal we have harvested, processed, and cooked straight from field/woods to our table. There is never a question as to if they are eating something unnatural as it’s all provided from the land God created for us. There are so many things you can do with deer, along with other wildlife. The possibilities are endless. Thanks for sharing the recipe for the roast!!
Samantha, it does my heart good to know that there are so many people out there who have embraced the hunter’s mindset; one in which food is harvested, processed at home, and prepared for our own families. We need to support each other, share ideas, and know that we’re doing the right thing. Thank you for visiting the Deerslayer’s Wife.
Do you bake covered or uncovered?
Uncovered. It allows the bacon to crisp up nicely.
Made it Sunday night just in time for watching football with my 18 yo son and I. To my surprise, he said “Dad…this is the best venison you ever made! I love the tender, buttery and garlic flavor”!!!
thank you for posting this recipe…
I’m glad your venison roast was a success, Brian. I don’t know about you but I hold compliments from the Junior Deerslayers in the highest regard. They don’t toss those out lightly. 😉
I made this exactly according to the recipe, and it was the best venison I ever ate. Shared some with friends and they couldn’t believe it was deer meat. Tender and juicy!
Isn’t it gratifying to know that the wild game you’ve harvested and prepared is appreciated? Glad I could help! Thanks so much for the comment. Be sure to try some of my other recipes and let me know how they turn out.