Sous Vide - For The Perfect Venison Steak

The late September sun was beginning to set as a mature doe cautiously stepped out of the thick brush and grazed toward me. September in the Augusta Expanded Archery Zone is a special time for me. I work all spring and summer to get my food plots in shape, hang stands, cut trails, and improve bedding areas. When it is finally time to hunt, and a deer is in front of my stand, eating the lush clover that I have worked so hard to provide, the feeling of satisfaction is almost overwhelming. Satisfaction, with a side-order of adrenaline - now that’s a combination! When the doe finally presented me with a broadside shot that even I couldn’t screw up, I released my arrow and watched her charge off into the brush.

Field to table - from my field to my table - what could possibly be better? After my wife and son helped with the recovery and field dressing, I called Sam Burgess from the truck to give him the heads-up that I was bringing a deer his way. Sam owns K&K Custom Meat Cutting in North Monmouth and cuts my steaks just the way I like them - thick. A couple days later, when I picked the deer up, he said, “oh they’re thick alright. I had the tape measure out to make sure they were an inch and a half. How you gonna cook ‘em?” I said, “sous vide and then finish them on the grill.” He said, “come again?” It was a good thing he got distracted by something else before I could explain. I’m not sure he would have believed me.

Sous vide (pronounced “sue veed”) is low temperature cooking in a sealed environment, first described in the 1700’s and made popular in 1974 by a French chef. Sous vide is french for “under vacuum,” and the method is now all the rage, using a special machine, a pot of water, and meat sealed in plastic. I bought my sous vide machine online for $100. It clips it to the side of my stockpot, and I put my venison in a ziplock bag. The machine keeps the water at a very precise temperature - exactly the temperature of medium-rare steak - and, over a few hours, the meat temperature slowly rises to exactly medium-rare. A quick searing on a hot grill or fry pan finishes the outside of the steak and Voila! Your perfect steak. You can cook other food using sous vide, but I mostly stick to very lean meat - venison, pork or beef tenderloin, flank steak. I tried a ribeye once - too much fat.

If you want to take the guesswork out of cooking your steak, use sous vide to dial it in exactly the way you like it.

Sous Vide Venison Steak

1lb. thick cut venison steak or chops, boneless

5oz. marinade sauce (I like Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce)

1 sliced or chopped onion, or 5oz. sliced shitake mushrooms

4tbsp. olive oil

6 cloves chopped garlic

Put the venison in a gallon-size ziplock bag with the marinade and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours to overnight. Check the bag for any leaking - I sometimes double-bag the meat if not 100% sure the bag won’t leak. You can play around with other marinades - the key is to add flavor to the meat, and also to the juice that comes out of it during the cooking process. You will use the juice to make the sauce.

Fill a large pot with water and follow the directions for using the sous vide machine. I set the machine for 130 degrees for 5 hours. That produces a perfect medium-rare steak, but that is the way I like it using my machine - your tastes and your machine may differ. Immerse the bag in the water, squeezing out any air pockets, and clip the top to the side of the pot. The steak will be done in about 2 hours, and then it will stay perfectly done for several more hours without being overcooked. You now have the flexibility to finish the rest of your menu, entertain guests, etc.

To finish and serve your steak, start by pre-heating your grill or fry pan until very hot. Sauté the chopped garlic and the onions or mushrooms in the olive oil until brown. Take the bag from the water, open and pour the juice into the sauté pan - stir to make a sauce.

Remove the steak from the bag and grill just enough to crust the surface and look like it’s been barbecued, or achieve a similar finish in a very hot fry pan, then slice and serve with the sauce. The thick slices of venison will be uniformly cooked just the way you like it, with just the edges seared. Perfect!

I’ve also been playing around with other methods of marinade or sauce, and a current favorite is to use a dry rub on the meat before it goes into the bag, discard the liquid after cooking, and smother the grilled meat in sautéed onions or mushrooms. You can also cook the meat with a barbecue sauce in the bag, and then spoon the sauce from the bag over the meat when it’s on the grill. Try any other variations that make sense to you - the key is that your venison will always be cooked just the way you like it.

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