Venison Bourguignon

Does a stew by any other name seem so fancy?

The ingredients

• 2 pounds deer shoulder, cubed

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• 1 teaspoon olive oil

• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• 6 ounces bacon, chopped

• 1.25 pounds carrots, chopped

• 1 large onion, roughly chopped

• 1 head of garlic

• 10 ounces mushrooms, halved

• .25c brandy

• 2 cups wine of choice

• 2 cups beef stock (or preferred stock)

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 3 sprigs thyme, 2 sprigs rosemary, tied up

• 4 tablespoons butter

• 4 tablespoons flour

The process

Marinate deer cubes in Worcestershire, garlic salt, olive oil, and black pepper for 2-4 hours. Fry bacon in dutch oven until fat renders. Remove bacon and set aside. Add in venison cubes and sear each side, then remove. Leave all liquid in the bottom of the pan. Add carrots and onion in and cook on high for 3-5 minutes. Add in brandy and let reduce by about half. Add in flour and toss until coated evenly. Next, add in wine and butter and reduce by half on medium high heat. Add bacon and venison back in, along with tomato paste, head of garlic (I wrapped in cheesecloth), tied up herbs, and 2 cups of beef stock. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 2-2.5 hours on the stove. Stir every 45 minutes. About 15 minutes before it’s finished, sauté mushrooms in butter and whatever seasonings you like. Mix into main dish, which should be somewhere between a very thick stew and mashed potato consistency. Oh, speaking of: serve with mashed potatoes.

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The story

I’m trying to figure out what this newsletter should be. Should I cook my personal favorites, or should I try some new stuff, with my own twist? My parents sent me back to New York with a deer shoulder, which I stored in my luggage like a sociopath this past May. I imagined TSA pulling my luggage and saying, “Sir, we need to discuss your meat.” That did not happen, but I’ve been confused as to what to do with it because, frankly, I don’t love the cut of deer that comes from the shoulder. I think it’s somehow both bland and gamey. What I settled on was attempting my first beef bourguignon, but with venison. I figured if Julia Child (famous chef, also famously dead) can do it and Julie Powell (famous home cook, less famously dead) can do it, then why not me (neither famous, nor dead)?

I always get nostalgic when making anything with venison because that was the meat of my childhood. We saved on groceries by putting “meat money” toward ammunition because money would go further via a box of bullets than it would in the meat aisle. That’s redneck math, babe. I assume I will, some time in the future, write up some of my more favorite venison dishes, but this one is all about the shoulder.

Growing up, we used to take a shoulder down to Buddy’s BBQ around Christmas and have them smoke it, before someone came along from Buddy’s BBQ corporate and told them that was illegal. Everyone wanted the back strap (the Regina George of venison cuts, imho) or the heart (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it), but the shoulder was what made up stir fry and roast and ground meat, when Mom and Dad would haul out the meat grinder. It’s the MVP of the deer, and for that, I’ll always appreciate it.

So I guess this is a long way of saying that I wanted to do venison bourguignon because I love the mix of high and low—fancy and pedestrian. I wanted to take a dish that I didn’t know how to pronounce for the longest time (burre-ginn-yon, apparently) and make it feel like something that belonged in our house growing up.