Venison Stew

You couldn’t class Henry as a recreational hunter, controlling populations of deer, pigs, rabbits and other introduced mammals was part of his job description. Those animals were classified as noxious animals until a law change, driven by cost, lowered the Forest Service’s responsibility – moving the target.

Sure he regularly went out with his dogs in the evenings and during the weekend, but still his prime objective was to protect the forest he was responsible for.

A hunter is fairly luck to bag a deer close to a road or where access is good, in those cases the whole deer is usually taken home to be sold or to be butchered.

In remote areas the deer usually is skinned, all but the hind legs, the backbone is severed and the loose skin is wrapped around the hind quarters. This makes an easy load to carry out on the shoulders. The back steaks are always taken because they are choice cuts.

Meat is best hung for up to a week before being butchered but the back steaks are good eaten the same day as the deer is killed. Henry removes the sinew band from the steak the same way as skinning a fish – on the thin end push the knife down to the sinew strip, hold it there and with the other hand pull the sinew so it leaves the meat behind.

He then cuts the steak into three inch strips, rubs salt into the meat and fries it in a pan with a liberal amount of butter.

Venison back steak is best eaten with fresh bread. Henry used to bake his own in the bush, which was his favourite. With nobody around to chastise him, he used the bread to dip into the pan with the residual steak juice and butter!

Hanging the hindquarters in a tree so the outside dries in the sun preserves the meat well. The first couple of days Henry may wipe off fly eggs, but after a couple of days the flies lose interest in it and the outside becomes quite hard. Wasps sometimes steal meat!

Other than the shin muscle there are three muscles on the hind leg – they can be removed separately and roasted if there is an oven. In the bush Henry rarely made a roast because it tends to dry out. At home cutting slits to fill with pineapple and/or orange slices makes a difference.

Henry uses the middle muscle first, his favourite, and removes the thin layer of sinewy skin as well as any bits there are not steak, then cuts it into one inch cubes. He rubs in lemon juice or any other fruit he has – kiwifruit is good - and lets it sit for an hour or two.

Chopped up onion is browned in some butter, then the meat goes into the pot/camp-oven and is covered with water. This brew Henry simmers over embers that are not too hot for at least a couple of hours, adding water as it evaporates.

If an airdrop was recent there may be fresh vegetables, otherwise he used tinned stuff, which is always precooked, so goes into the stew at the last moment. Carrots take a while to cook and they go in first, then diced spuds. If the airdrop included cabbages and broccoli, Henry liked to include the stems and inner core of those – the crunchy bits.

Always partial to peas, Henry would always add a can - or beans, not baked or sliced beans, red kidney were good.

If he watched the brew carefully, and included spuds, there was no need to thicken the stew, but if it needed thickening, Fielder’s cornflower was the stuff, two teaspoons and about half a cup of water, stirred to a paste then stirred into the stew.

Henry’s stews lasted him a week, but he was always careful to bring it to a boil before each meal – bacteria love stews, especially if there is no refrigeration, so it was essential to ‘boil ‘er up before devouring’.

In the early days, Henry and his mates were supplied with cans of instant potato. Not the modern flakey stuff, this was ex WWII (or is that WWI?) a powder that was difficult to convert into anything remotely edible! They used to call it ‘plastic spud’ because that is exactly what it was like. Henry guessed that the Forest Service wanted to use it up – rice would have been a far better option.

Henry doesn’t miss the plastic spud, but given to opportunity will cook up a storm! Not necessarily with venison but with beef or even goat! And his bread making days are over, a compromise to a healthy diet.