Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The GurneyGranny's organic venison tenderloin recipe


Prep time: 14 hours

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
-Fresh venison tenderloins
-Sea salt
-Freshly ground pepper
-peanut oil
-Browning A-bolt, .257 Roberts caliber
-Sharp knife
-Stout rope

Prep: Put bad Maxwell House coffee in percolator at 5am. Trudge off to blind at 6:15am. Identify 9 point buck at 8:30am. Shoot. Field dress. Drag. Register with DNR in Iron River. Graciously accept their, "nice buck! comment. Hang on buck pole to cool. Return to blind for afternoon hunt. Identify 8 point buck at 4pm. Repeat above procedure. Variation: holler for the BearWhisperer since you no longer have a valid buck tag. Note that 'party hunting' within shouting distance is perfectly legal in Wisconsin.

Cooking: Filet tenderloins from deer. Heat oven in Detroit Jewel to Very Hot (check out dial settings in image). Insert heirloom cast iron skillet. Rub the tenderloins with peanut oil and salt and pepper liberally. Put hot skillet on wide open burner and sear for one minute on each side. Return to oven to finish, 2 minutes per side. Tenderloins will be perfectly medium rare and can be cut with a butter knife. Be sure to ask camp members how they want their steaks done, even though you plan to make them all medium rare. It tends to empower them and build their self esteem. Sides include fresh frozen sweet corn, garlic mashed potatoes, and fresh bakery bread. Oh, and maybe a few bottles of wine.

This years efforts of the menly buck hunters at camp were eclipsed by the GurneyGranny's two buck performance. She richly deserved it however, after all the 'butt hours' she put in over the last few seasons. Since she is a moderate woman in her alcohol consumption (unlike the KingOfIronwoodIsland), I was forced to jump in and pick up the slack to help her celebrate her two bucks vicariously by sipping a Bushmill's or three.

This year Wisconsin sold 626,000 deer licenses. Of that, roughly 8% were women. Among young hunters however, girls made up 20% of the licensees. When we were kids, a woman in the woods was very rare. GG's dad, ButcherBlockBob, drove up for a couple days to deliver his exquisite handmade butcher block table for the cut up shack. I think he was pretty proud that his eldest daughter was the leader in the clubhouse, so to speak.

3 comments:

gurneygranny said...

I shot the morning buck at 7:30, actually. He was field dressed and ready to load up by 8:15. :)

bonnie said...

Wow, did you see this? I knew that deer swim, but not in New York Harbor!!!

DaveO said...

I enjoyed the angst.....animal control, boats watching the deer, wounded leg, etc. I on the other hand, first looked for brow tines and didn't really spot any, making him a big six pointer. I also thought of what a fine addition he would make to a lower east side food shelf, if that sort of thing is allowed along with the tofu, healthful veggies, and flax seed....;)