we eat venison in several recipes at my house .we almost never do the traditional chicken fried version but last night I broke tradition . I do enjoy soaking mine a few days in a light brine and rinse it well and soak it in fresh water as well . this particular set of tenderloins have been on ice or the fridge for about 10 days .....
I wish I could have gotten a photo of the way they fried up
they turned out so good the consumption took place before I could get a picture
man were they beyond yummy
so the question looms
how do you like yours ?

Backstraps grill it most of the time to rare or medium rare most of the time. Chicken fry or a roast in the crockpot on occasion. Fajitas and stir fry on occasion as well. Ground gets used in Sausage, Bacon Burger, chili, mixed with ground beef and ground pork for meatloaf. Lots of ways to use venison. steak tartare on rare occasions (pun intended)

just like that then make a little gravy and mashed patatoes.

Cook it many different ways and all are great. This is my favorite way my Mom and Dad cooked it. Take a backstrap(tenderlion or ham steak also) and cut it 1/2"-3/4" in cutlets/steaks or butterfly. Season to your taste and dredge in flour. Take a cast iron skillet and put in enough oil(I like olive oil) to fry in. Take a sweet yellow onion and cut it into rings. Take and put in a few onion rings in the skillet with the heated oil and then put in backstrap. Fry it on one side till it is starting to brown then turn and cook till starting to brown. Take the onions and backstrap out and drain on a paper towel. We use an small old roaster lined with aluminum foil. We place the onions and backstrap in and seal/cover tightly. Then repeat till all venison is cooked. We take and put the roaster after it is full in the oven and continue to bake at 250 degrees for 2-4 hours(depending on how much venison). We take the drippings in the pan and add flour to brown for gravy. The venison will almost fall apart and always has a great taste/flavor.

I almost always marinate my backstrap ( whole ) and grill it to medium rare. Had some last night and it was delish cooked on mesquite.

I have a bunch of chukar and pheasant that we chicken fry.

Glad this came up, we just had some pineapple juice marinated Backstrap Sunday night.

How long can you safely marinate venison in whatever in the fridge? I was thinking only 24 hours or so, but some of you guys clearly go longer than that.

Charlie

I cook mine in lots of different ways. My favorite is to cut a whole back strap into chunks about an inch thick. I cut jalapenos and wrap the entire thing in bacon, and season with garlic salt and Tony Chacheres (sp?). Then I grill them to a medium rare. They are phenomenal. I will also wrap an entire backstrap in bacon, season with salt and pepper and smoke it in the smoker. When it is about thirty minutes from being done, I will brush on a chipotle raspberry jelly (the stuff that people put on cream cheese for dip). The jelly puts a great glaze on the meat.

Fried is probably the most common for us. I also like to get a little pan sausage made and use that for anything for breakfast. The processor I use in Belton makes the best smoked link sausage. Their regular or the jalapeno and cheese smoked sausage both are probably the best I've had.

A new thing my dad showed me...
Butterfly the backstrap and I marinade mine in some Zesty Italian dressing. Take venison pan sausage, cream cheese, chopped up onions and jalapenos and mix well. Stuff the butterflied backstrap with your mixture, then wrap everything in bacon. You may want to tie it up with some string so it doesn't fall apart and throw it on the smoker for a couple of hours.

Fried is one of the favorites with homade cream gravey mmm.

Use it in several other things also. Cut into steaks and grilled like beef is great (so long as you don't cook much past med rare) Pot roast, made pastrami out of a few. I know there is more just cant think of em now.

Charlie I would think you could go up to 48 hours but I don't think you need to. I do mine the night before and by the time I cook it, it's usually 18-24 hours.
It cooks dang near fork tender. I do cook mine slightly indirect for a little smoke flavor and to make sure I do not over cook it then char it at the end. It always comes out tasty.

Sous Vide at 138'F then finish, Hot & Fast for outside. Comes out tender and moist. Typical seasoning involves fresh Rosemary diced and pressed onto the raw meat. A shake of Worcestershire and then into the bag for Souse Vide. Before hitting the grill I dry the meat and then hit it with Salt, Pepper, etc.

Shoot the deer, gut it, rinse it out, cut the head off, let it hang for 5-10 days in the fridge or outside if cold enough.

Skin it, butcher it, then the world is yours!

I made beef and broccoli last night which was awesome, made beef stroganoff both with deer meat of course. I chicken fry it all the time, mostly the hind quarter steaks because I like eating the backstrap and tenderloins lightly grilled. One of my favorites though is deer barbacoa, throw it in the dutch oven and go occupy yourself for 2 hours or so. Come back, shred up the meat with a fork, and you have a tasty meal for days!

We do all kinds of stuff with it since we eat so much of it. The only thing I make sure of is that it isn't overcooked. That means rare.

I butcher all my own deer and have gotten to where I pretty much do this with mine. These are my preferred cuts. Tenderloins I butter fly and usually grill on the fire. Hind quarters I debone and save whole to smoke, or slice to make jerky. Front legs, neck, lower hind legs, and any other trimming I grind and make my own link type sausages.

lately I've been taking the steaks and marinating them in a mix of worstershire, soy sauce, italian dressing, butter, tony's, cavenders, and a little garlic and onion powder. (at least 6 hrs, longer is better. slice onions and jalapenos and wrap them around the steaks with bacon and grill. when the bacon is done, they are done. AWESOME!!!

also have taken the whole backstrap and butterflied it. marinate in the same marinade. stuff with cream cheese and peppers, onions, wrap in bacon and grill or smoke.... also Awesome!!!!

Hams, sliced into round steaks and tenderized, then used in any recipe that calls for cube steak.
Backstrap, mainly sliced and fried, sometimes grilled.
Chili grind, used to make either chili or stew
Hamburger, used for burgers, spaghetti sauce, taco meat, any recipe that calls for ground meat
Various smoked link sausage and pan sausage.
Will sometimes cut roasts from the shoulders

These all sound delicious. lately I've been having to make room for more meat in the freezer. I've been making awesome jerky in the dehydrator. Cut meat into long strips, season with soy sauce, garlic salt, crushed black pepper, curing and season packs from 'High mountain', available at Academy. Put on trays for dehydrator and dry for 15 hours or so. You can't make it fast enough. People go nuts for this stuff.

Here is what I use currently to make jerky based on my own experimentations. I think you can just about use any marinade and spices you like and it will turn out good. The Allegro you can use any flavor you want. I like the hot & spicy. I use the yellow Mrs. dash for not very spicy. The red Mrs. Dash for more spicy. Cut it thin and soak in water changing several times to get the blood out. Drain in a colander. Marinade for 2-3 days in the fridg mixing every day. Dry in the dehydrator for 8-10 hours. My family gobbles it up fast as I can make it.

Untitled by wfhunter, on Flickr

Untitled by wfhunter, on Flickr

Untitled by wfhunter, on Flickr

Grill the straps and rest is jerky

Grill straps and tenders over mesquite. Cube the rest for ground or stew meat and sometimes slice for jerky. Do lots of stew cause it's about the only way to get the boy to eat veggies

I cut my backstraps in half..freeze half sections..when ready to cook.. Trim and cut into 2 inch steaks..Carefully hammer the chit out of them until they are 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thickness..If you leave the chit in them..will be tough to eat.. be sure and hammer it out.. season to your taste.. throw some non-salted butter in a skillet.. brown em good.. Take a glass baking dish.. lay them in the bottom. Take the bigger cans of Cream of Mushroom..pour on top.. Bake on 275 for 30 minutes.. Enjoy!!!

chops, steaks or backstrap cut into butterfly steaks. Dredge in flour and fry in oil until rare. Line a covered broiling pan. Cover with mushroom soup and a cup of water (pre-mix this in a separate bowl). Bake @ 350 until done. About 30-45 minutes.
Place a smothered steak over rice and dig in!

I like to take about a quarter of a backstrap let it age in the fridge for a couple days then rub with olive oil then coat it in fresh cracked pepper and pan sear it. It is tasty

Lots of ways but I would never soak mine until all the juices came out. I never let red meat touch water in any form.