What to do with a venison roast

One of my wife's co-workers provided us with a nice-sized venison roast. It's been in the freezer for quite a while now and I'd like to cook it up this weekend. I don't know where on the deer this came from but it looks quite lean.

I've never cooked this sort of thing before. Anyone have any ideas on how to cook this? Should I roast it? Braise it?

Thanks in advance.

Mike, I looked up my notes and this is the way I did it when we had a frozen venison roast and it came out terrif. But please note there are other ways to do this, lots of people like to cook it in a crock pot E.G.
Anyway, marinated the venison overnight (about 12 hours) in a marinade consisting of 2 to 1 vinegar to oil (used canola), about half a cup of water, a couple Tbls sugar, S & P.
When ready to cook, discarded the marinade and browned the roast quickly in a skillet, then let it cool.
Let me digress here, forgot to say cut off any fat from the roast after defrosting, it doesn't taste good.
Okay, after the seared venison has cooled, inserted slivers of garlic and a light dusting of S & P, put it in a roasting pan with about 2 cups of red wine and a cup of beef broth, and covered the pan with foil.
Preheated oven at 325 F, roasted it until my meat thermometer registered 145F and pulled it. Let it sit tented for 20 minutes and it was ready to go, medium rare that is.
Whatever method you wind up using, try not to overcook it as it'll get tough.

Thanks, Shel! That's exactly the kind of help I was looking for.

A larding needle comes in handy for venison roasts. Always good to throw in a few dried juniper berries for game, too.

A larding needle comes in handy for venison roasts. Always good to throw in a few dried juniper berries for game, too.

Amen, amen. If you don't have a larding needle, get the lard in there somehow.

One of my wife's co-workers provided us with a nice-sized venison roast. It's been in the freezer for quite a while now and I'd like to cook it up this weekend. I don't know where on the deer this came from but it looks quite lean.

I've never cooked this sort of thing before. Anyone have any ideas on how to cook this? Should I roast it? Braise it?

Thanks in advance.

Mike, I am just throwing this out there just FWIW, but depending on what part of the deer the roast came from It could be tough, I might just slice a small piece off and fry it to test that out. And, if it is chewy, I might opt for the braising method of cooking. Like I said, just throwing that out. Could your wife ask her co-worker what part the roast came from? For example, if it is from the loin, I would either roast it or even cook it indirect on the grill.

If anything other than backstrap, I'd suggest a braise or pot roast. If you fry any part of the leg without working it over with a meat tenderizer first, it will almost surely be tough. The exception being a young of the year, barely out of spots. That's been my experience over a lifetime of hunting deer, FWIW.

Agree with Robert, with about the same amount of experience. Best when they still have spots.

Thanks for the help, everyone. At this point, I have no knowledge of either the deer or the part of the deer this came from. If I can get more info, I'll plug that into the equation. Otherwise, I'll go with braising it.

My family's principle red meat when we are fortunate hunting is venison. We even serve it to guests. A few years ago I did a venison backstrap, an elk backstrap and a beef tenderloin for a dinner of 16. The guests were all people with either excellent food or wine knowledge. I made each of the three meats identical but cooked them separately. Each plate had a slice of each all cooked medium rare. I did not tell the quests which was which. After they all had been sampled we discussed them. The guests all preferred the elk as their first choice, venison was the second and the beef came in last.


The two wild meats had been dressed and cared for correctly so they didn't need any extra preparation. The meats were trimmed of all fat and connective tissue, rinsed and then were marinated in a brine of 3 quarts water, 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup kosher salt for 2 hours. Any less time does less any more time doesn't do anything more.
If I were given a piece of meat that seems to contain quite a bit of blood I would add 1-2 TBS apple cider vinegar. I then roasted the meat, basted it with a little melted butter and worcestershire. I always serve it with chimichurri.

My family doesn't care for well done venison unless it is in a stew of some sort. If someone likes lamb they will like well prepared venison. 'Well Prepared" means all the way from field to table.
I have a personal prejudice against covering the actual flavors of good "game" with all sorts of glop. Sort of the way I like good red wine by itself in a glass and not mixed with Coke, soda or 7 up.

If you cook it using jams,jellies, fruit juice, tomatoes, dried mushrooms etc. you will mask the actual flavor of venison. My venison comes from a National Forest yet people say it is so good because it is corn fed! Wrong! Good venison from an older deer to my palate is very close to good mutton. To my palate very young deer is milder in flavor than lamb.