New Way to Cook Deer Steaks

Last Friday night we had such good cow steaks at Gregg and Lisa's that I felt obligated to provide something similar and made from deer for Nora.  Nora had asked, 'Daddy why don't you ever cook steaks?'  The problem is deer has way less fat in it than does beef.  Cook a deer steak like you would a beef steak and it'll be dry and tough.  So I decided to experiment.

Instead of cooking the steaks as steaks I decided to try and cook them up as a roast first and then cut up into into steaks at the end.  Cook slow and low to keep the meat moist and then sear it in a super hot frying pan with some oil to get the unctuous fatty steak crust and flavor.

Here is what I did:

1) Choose a big rump roast and thaw to room temperature. Season the outside with salt and pepper and a little oil.
2) Cook long and slow at 170 degrees (mine took over 2 hours).
3) Take out at an internal temperature of 120 degrees.
4) Let rest for 5 minutes.
5) Heat large cast iron pan super hot and add oil (or beef lard). I used corn oil - DO NOT use olive oil as it burns.
6) Slice roast into one inch thick slab steaks.
7) Season the steaks liberally with pepper and salt.
8) Sear in super hot frying pan - a minute or so on each side (until there is a nice crusty caramelized steak sear on each side)
9) Serve.

The kids gobbled up the steak.  Nora declared, 'these are the softest steaks ever'.  I take that to mean the most tender ever.  And the oil coating tasted like steak fat - so all the flavor too.  Mission complete.

Patrick