Slow Cookers Go Wild!

As you know, we are fond of game cookbooks and as the weather gets cooler (Who am I kidding, it is downright cold, today!) it is time to think about wonderfully, lovingly braised meats. While some culinary types look down their noses at the lowly crock-pot, many a classically trained chef will tell you there is no better way to braise meat. Still not convinced? Read Mark Bittman's wonderful article in the New York Time.

For game, which can often need a long cooking time, a slow cooker is a godsend. Enter outdoors woman Teresa Marrone. She has put together a book covering both the slow cooker and game. Slow Cookers Go Wild! is a great place to start. Unlike many game cookbooks, this book offers up delightful recipes that can easily converted to wonderful recipes for a cheaper cut of beef or pork, since I know most of readers are not facing an abundance of bear roast or moose... unless maybe Sarah Palin is a reader. ( No she's way too busy to be making slow-cooker moose.)

The sides are a lot of fun. There is a running joke on Top Chef about never making potatoes gratin, because of course they never get done. I love making a scalloped potato with an alternative ingredient. I love scalloped potatoes with pears or turnips. I like making scalloped sweet potatoes. Marrone makes a two-colored potato of white and sweet potatoes and cooks them for hours in the slow-cooker. I had never thought of scalloped potatoes in a slow cooker, but I am definitely giving it a try.

Here's a great venison roast recipe. It requires grabbing ingredients form the bar, but we won't tell.

Venison Roast Braised With Grenadine

2-pound boneless venison rump roast
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup grenadine syrup

Rinse roast and pat dry with paper towels. Season generously with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat until simmering. Ass roast and brown well on all sides: if the oil starts smoking, reduce heat slightly. While roast is browning, cut onion in in half from top to bottom, then cut each half across the equator, Cut each quarter into 1/4 inch wide wedges from top to bottom (rather than in half rings). Add onion wedges to dutch oven with roast, and stir them around occasionally while roast is browning. In measuring cup , combine broth and grenadine.

When roast is nicely browned, transfer to the slow cooker along with the onions. Add broth mixture to Dutch oven, stirring to loosen any browned bits. cook over medium heat for about a minute, then pour over roast in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low until roast is very tender, 7 to 8 hours. To serve, transfer roast to cutting board and let stand for a few minutes, then cut or break the roast apart into chunks. Place venison in serving bowl; pour juices and onions from the slow cooker over the top.

Try this with a nice side of quinoa and you are good to go.

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Ultimate Venison Cookery

I find it a bit unusual that in the Untied States where we love to eat “everything”, that there is little commercial venison. It is a popular and available meat in most of Europe and the Untied Kingdom. There is a special affinity for farming venison in Scotland. Much of the salient cooking expertise comes from great Scottish cooks like Lady Claire Macdonald and Nicola Fletcher.

Fletcher collected thirty years of farming, butchering and cooking venison into a marvelous book on the subject. Ultimate Venison Cookery is just that – the ultimate book on the subject. If you love venison, this book is a must. Fletcher explains in detail the parts and cuts of the deer. She gives sound advice on the issue of marinating or not citing a cookery book she was reading as a draft. It bore a misprint urging the reader to use marinades, “with desecration and with a purpose”. Fletcher found it to be more of a prophecy than a misprint. Many marinades, she notes, take on the air of a pickling brine than a marinade. Marinade lightly with a purpose and not a desecration.


My favorite holiday terrine is from the Duchess of Devonshire, but this winter, I have been using a variation of Nicola Fletcher’s venison terrine.

Venison and Apricot Terrine

75 g dried apricots, chopped
3 tablespoons brandy
500 g minced venison
350 g minced belly of pork
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
2 allspice berries, crushed
6 juniper berries, crushed
100 ml dry red wine or port
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
175 g thinly slice pancetta or streaky bacon
1 egg, beaten

Mix apricots with the brandy and cover and leave to soak for a couple of hours. Mix together the venison, pork, fresh ginger, allspice, juniper berries, salt and pepper with the wine or port and the olive oil. Cover and marinate overnight or as long as you can.

Preheat the oven to Gas 4, 180 C, 350 F. Line a terrine or loaf tin with the pancetta or streaky bacon, keeping 3 or 4 rashers for the top. Beat the egg into the marinated venison mixture, then use just under half to fill the base of the terrine, pushing a 1.25 cm ridge up all around the sides of the terrine. Spoon the apricots into the hollow created by the ridge, then cover with the rest of the venison mixture to encase the apricots completely. Smooth over and cover with the rest of the pancetta or bacon, folding over any stray strips.

Cover with tin foil, place in a bain marie and bake in the oven for 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place a weight on top, then chill. To serve, run a knife around the edge of the tin and turn the terrine out.

It makes a delicate and wonderful terrine. I have made it with and without the apricot layer and both have been well received. Now may be the time to befriend a hunter so they will share their game next November.

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