Tenderizing question

Marinate it.

The best thing a cook can purchase is a good meat thermometer and trust in it when you cook.

I marinate in good seasoning Italian for 24 hours turning it often then on the grill to a temp of 145 degrees,remove it from the grill placing them on a plate and covering them with aluminum foil then let them rest for 20 mins before serving.

It also makes a difference in what cut of deer your using.

Back in 2011 I shot a Doe that turned out to be on the tough side. I asked a Butcher at Krogers, and he said I must have shot a "Runner", and that was the reason it was tough. Slow cooking or grinding into burger should work. I also let thawed portions (Steaks & Chops) set in my Frig. for a few days, which help a lot.

As suggested above, there is no substitute for proper aging of venison. 90 percent butcher way too soon IMO by dry aging with hide on as I've done for over 3000 deer but "wet aging" sealed and kept in the frig for a week or more does work some. Heat, air and light are the big enemies of proper aging, in the order of importance.

I even use the wet aging process in the frig in a package for beef cuts (NOT burger) from the local store. UNLESS its already marked down for age reasons. A porterhouse bought, wrapped in paper and thrown in the back of the frig 10 days results in a vast improvement flavor and tenderness wise.

Also as indicated, the fast way to deal with such is just use a slow cooker but aging increases the flavor 10 fold to all other methods, not just tenderness. I even age my venison burger meat.

God Bless

This is excellent advice

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Instead of using water in my slow cooker or crock pot , I make extra strong coffee and use that instead . When the meat is done I make a gravy with the coffee and everything else from the slow cooker / crock pot . And to spice it up a tad I add some Cajun Seasoning .

I don't believe that aging does much for deer tenderness. I've taken back straps off of freshly killed deer and they were every bit as good as one taken off of a carcass that spent several days hanging in a walk in cooler.

In my opinion, all the hang time does is lets the meat firm up a bit so it's easier to butcher. We typically gut in the field, skin as soon as we get back to the barn, then hang in the walk in wrapped in a cloth game bag for a few days. Leave them in the cooler too long (5 days +) and the outside surface gets dried out, tougher than heck, and you have to trim it off wasting meat.

The only deer I've ever had that were noticeably tough were very old, rutted up bucks. In most cases the bucks are pretty good too.

I suspect that you are over cooking to make it tough. Deer has to be served pretty rare, as there is zero fat in it. Try chunking up steaks about half the size of a skoal can, wrap with a half slice of bacon tooth picked to it, then grill on a hot fire. When the bacon is done, the steak is done. It should be pretty red on the inside, as long as it's warm, it's done.

If you can't stomach rare meat, slow cook as suggested above in the recipe of your choice and it will fall apart just like a beef roast, given enough time.

Thanks for all the advice. I went to a local grocer the other day and bought a tenderizer hammer and the tenderizer "salt" or whatever you call it and took two packaged deer loins from the same deer hammered one and put the tenderizer on it and did the other how I always did it just adding seasoning and grilled them both. The one I tenderized was the best deer steak I have ever eaten. the other one was still a bit chewy. But the tenderized one cooked a LOT quicker as expected but was left nice and juicy and a little red where as the other one seemed to dry up a lot even still being a little red in the middle.

I may have found my new favorite way to have my deer steaks!! I'll post some pictures next time I make them!