My boyfriend is a hunter (mostly for deer, although he has some dove in the freezer I want to try smoking) and one of my favorite things to smoke-cook from the deer is the backstrap. He has all of his meat processed for him, and his butcher cuts the backstrap up into little steaks. I've also seen it whole, more like a tenderloin. Either way, this mode of preparation is my favorite.

Cayley's Balsamic Orange Backstrap

I love balsamic vinegar. I marinate things in it, make reduction sauces out of it ( for salmon, halibut, etc), use it in dressings, heck, I would probably drink it, if it were a high enough quality. I ran out of my "good" balsamic, so I'm using a cheaper one from the local grocery store, but it works in a pinch.

For this recipe you'll need:

• 2 pounds venison backstrap
• 1/4 cup Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar (aka sugar in the raw) + extra for rub
  
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 quart water
• 1 package bacon
• Cookshack RibRub
  

This is the backstrap, I think it's from one of this year's doe (he got 2, one during black powder and one during rifle season. I act like I know what that means, but I mostly just know that it means he's up ridiculously early and I get a freezer full of meat, if I'm lucky). I'm pretty sure this is from the doe that knocked Clayton off of his bucket after he shot it (it charged him and head butted him right off it before it died!).



The other main ingredients are equal amounts of turbinado sugar (I went to Kauai recently for a vacation with my mom and grandparents, and picked up some raw cane sugar at a coffee plantation, so that's my sugar - Maui Gold), Kosher salt, which I am a huge believer in, balsamic vinegar, which I've already professed my love for, and orange juice, but wait ...

I had an "uh-oh, I don't have orange juice at home!" moment right before leaving work. I knew that Heather used Pineapple Orange juice for the Mai Tai Chicken at lunch. Was there any left? Score! There was! Since this was a work related project, I took one so that I could get my blog done. Pineapple is great in a marinade, and since it is mixed with orange, would keep the integrity of the original flavor.


Time to get started:
Blend together the Kosher salt, turbinado sugar, (pineapple) orange juice, and balsamic vinegar until there are no salt or sugar crystals remaining. From personal (messy) experience, I find that it's better to mix everything without the water, and then add the water once you're done. You can more vigorously whisk when you don't have a full bowl. Add the water and blend well.




Trim backstrap of all visible fat, gristle, and silverskin. I like to use a smaller knife, like a boning knife, and a paper towel to help pull the silverskin off, a lot like when you remove the membrane from a rack of ribs. This is important, no matter how lazy you're feeling, because a lot of the "gamey" taste that people don't care for is found in the silverskin, fat, and gristle, not in the actual meat of the deer. If you get it off, then you're home free. We've been really lucky with the deer we've had these past couple of years and they haven't been too wild tasting, but you can still taste it if you get a piece of that silverskin.


In addition to the normal trimming, one of the pieces also had a really deep red, almost veiny/bloody/clotty looking chunk it it, so I trimmed that as well, which is pictured. I'm not sure if I needed to trim it, but since I'm not an expert, I went ahead and did it. I've been told that the more adrenaline a deer has when shot, or the more it runs when shot before it falls, the more the game flavor, so I thought maybe this was related. I don't know. That clot thing was my whole rational in thinking it was the infamous head-butt doe.



Place trimmed backstrap in a large zip top bag and put bag into a bowl. Pour marinade into bag, seal, and refrigerate for 2 - 4 hours. Don't marinate it for too long, or the acids in the vinegar and orange juice will start to "cook" the meat (see the picture at right, and that's only after 2 hours and it's already "cooking" a little, you can tell by the change in color).




Remove from marinade and rub liberally with an equal mixture of RibRub and turbinado sugar. Some recipes tell you to do this after you wrap with bacon, but I think that's silly. How does it get into the meat, then?





Wrap the backstrap with bacon so that that it is completely covered (I like to think of it as wrapping it like a mummy). This helps keep the moisture in the extremely lean deer meat (I even trimmed all the fat, remember?). Even though I added moisture in by marinating, it's still very lean and has a tendency to dry out without the bacon. While the venison cooks, the bacon fat will render down a bit and baste the meat, keeping it moist.  Besides, what doesn't improve with bacon? You can just use cheap bacon, the fattier the better, you pitch it at the end anyway.



Smoke-cook with 2 ounces of apple wood at 225ºF for 45 minutes if it's "steaks" like I have, or 1 1/2 hours, if it's more of a loin, or until the backstrap reaches an internal temperature of 150ºF. I smoke them on the middle rack. Bonus points if you don't get in a hurry and forget to put the drip pan underneath the smoker. That's right. Luckily it was just a little bacon fat, and not a ton of pork butt fat. But still. Gah! I know better!





This is the backstrap out of the smoker. It smells amazing. As you can see (in the unwrapped pic), it's not caramelized, which is the way that I like it, but it is nice and moist.  Being wrapped in the bacon and smoked at a low temperature, it's not going to get caramelized, I know that, which is why I opt to quickly sear it in a hot pan.




This is the backstrap after searing it in the smoking hot pan with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I like the texture better after this is done. Without it, it reminds me a little bit of liver (not the taste, just the texture). But once it's seared, it's perfect! Served with some wild rice pilaf, this is a great meal to finish my day. If I had been feeling a little bit more ambitious, I'd have made a pan sauce with some balsamic for the rice and the backstrap, but I was tired, and it was good as is.







It must smell good, because the wolves (Elly and Nyla) start to circle looking for pieces. They think they deserve some venison too. I guess they believe that if they were vicious killers in the wild, they could have taken one down on their own. All 15 pounds of them.