6 votes

My venison tasted like beef

I went to the local farmers' market on Saturday and was impressed by both the mushroom guy and the stand selling venison. I've only been able to find venison a few times (don't have any hunter friends), and the times I've made it before, it's gone into chili. So, I bought a pound of stew meat, a half pint of Cinnamon Cap Chestnut mushrooms, and some produce to finish out a stew. I braised it all up last night in some beef broth and red wine. That may have been a mistake, as the venison basically came out tasting like stew beef. Process went a little like this:

  • chop up the venison into bite-sized chunks
  • brown the venison in a bit of butter
  • add more butter and some flour to make roux
  • add a splash of red wine and about a carton of beef broth
  • add mushrooms, potatoes, garlic
  • realize I'm out of onions, so add onion powder
  • reduce until gravy-like

All in all, it was tasty (the mushrooms were great!), but the venison was basically very tender, $9 / lb stew beef. Did I treat it wrong by using beef broth, or is that just the way it tastes?