With thousands and thousands of deer being harvested every fall during hunting season, many of you are looking for new ways to prepare the pounds and pounds of venison in your freezers. In colonial times, venison was the main source of meat for the dinner table. Early settlers had few domesticated animals and the ones they had were rarely used for meat. Women had many ways of preparing and preserving wild game.

Today we serve beef, pork, veal, seafood or poultry daily and some of us really don't want to cook venison. We've either heard about or had first hand experience with deer meat that was dry and tough and had an unpleasant flavor.

Preparing good venison starts with the hunter. Preparation begins immediately after the deer is shot and how it's done plays a big part in whether the venison is tasty and delicious or gamey and chewy. Prompt and careful field dressing, chilling and refrigeration are very important. See the links below this article for information on proper field dressing, refrigeration, skinning, cutting and processing. Get ideas on wrapping, freezing, storing and other tips for deer hunters.

Venison is naturally lean. It's low in calories, fat and cholesterol....
A 3 oz. serving of venison loin has only about 139 calories, 62 grams of cholesterol and 5 grams of fat. A comparable cut of beef has 223 calories, 77 grams of cholesterol and 13 grams of fat.

Venison Cooking Tips