The more ways you have available to utilize venison, the more you can hunt. It’s time to add sandwiches of all kinds to your venison menu options.
It’s a mistake to think that venison is only for weeknight dinners, celebration meals, special occasions or snacking. If you’re going to shoot deer, you’d better create additional options with your bounty of venison, and sandwiches and sandwich-type dishes are often overlooked. But when you explore all of the options, the variety of concepts out there is truly amazing.
Plus, sandwiches break you out of traditional molds, adding lunches, easy weeknight suppers, more appetizers, and even a lineup of take-to-work meals, to your venison-prep repertoire. Let’s run through all of the possibilities and get you sandwiching it up!
Lunch Meat
One of the best ways to utilize venison beyond traditional dinner-type meals is to make plenty of luncheon meats out of venison trim for sandwiches. Most of the meats listed here are also good on appetizer trays, or just to keep in the fridge for snacks. Why buy luncheon meats when you can make them out of venison? Summer sausage is the prime example. Make large-diameter logs (3 to 5 inches) and slice off thin pieces for sandwiches.
But you’re not restricted to traditional summer sausage for your luncheon meat options and cold sandwich creations. Salami, pastrami and pepperoni are all great with venison as the anchor meat, as well. Bologna is awesome from venison, too. Use a traditional bologna recipe, but instead of making all ring bologna, stuff some sausage tubes with bologna mixture, too. You’ve heard of corned beef? Corned venison is great, too. Plus, corning (pickling) is the perfect way to utilize the flat pieces of meat you carve off a venison shoulder. Utilize some meat hot, but save plenty for carving up cold for sandwiches.
Making Corned Venison
Ingredients
2 cups water
6 tablespoons sugar-based curing mixture (example: Morton Tender Quick)
1/2 cup brown sugar
4.5 teaspoons pickling spice
1 tablespoons garlic powder
6 cups cold water
5 pounds boneless shoulder venison roast
Directions
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Stir in the curing mixture, brown sugar, pickling spice and garlic powder; stir until dissolved then remove from the heat. Pour 6 cups of cold water into a 2-gallon container and stir in the spice mixture. Place the boneless venison into the brine, cover and refrigerate.
Leave the venison in the refrigerator to brine for five days, turning the meat over every day.
To cook, rinse the meat well, place into a large pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for four hours. Remove the venison from the pot and rest it for 30 minutes before slicing.
Shredded Venison
Here’s an idea for easily turning a roast into hot sandwiches.
Cut up a couple of onions and place them in the bottom of a Crockpot with 2 cups of beef broth. Alternatively use a cup of diced tomatoes and a cup of the beef broth. Add roast pieces. Cook on low for 10 to 12 hours to steam that roast into soft goodness. Flake off the meat with a fork, mix back with the juices, and serve on crusty buns.
You can also do shredded meat in the oven. Use the same recipe, set the oven at 250 to 275 F, seal up the pan so steam stays in, and cook for six to eight hours.
Leftovers? Perfect! Store in serving-sized plastic containers and take to work to heat up for hot sandwiches at lunch time.
Smoked Venison
Hot-smoking venison — much like you would a ham — is a great way to turn a chunk of venison into sliceable meat for sandwiches. The process starts with brining and finishes with hot-smoking the meat to an internal temperature of 160 F.
Brine Recipe and Smoking Techniques
Brining, also known as salting, is the process of curing meat in a bath containing highly concentrated salt. This process removes moisture from the meat and enhances curing, which will be completed by the heat and smoke to come. Here’s a classic brine recipe to get you started.
Ingredients
¼ cup kosher salt
¼ cup packed brown sugar
4 cups water
Directions
Combine all ingredients and whisk vigorously to dissolve and mix the solids. Make more brine as needed, in the proportion listed above. Cover the meat and soak in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It’s also good to inject brine directly into the meat on thicker cuts, where the brine just can’t soak all the way in on its own. Note: If you’re making a large quantity of brine, here is the ratio to use: 1 cup kosher salt and 1 cup packed brown sugar per gallon of non-chlorinated water.
Position your smoker so that the bottom air vent is opposite the wind direction so that wind will not penetrate the unit. This will help maintain an even temperature.
Leave the top vent open during smoking to let steam rise and release from the unit.
Venison Burgers
Burgers are a form of hot sandwich, and it’s a shame that more venison doesn’t get used this way. Part of the “bad rap” venison burgers get is that they can be dry. That’s actually a good thing health-wise (less fat) and taste-wise (venison fat seldom tastes good), but it can make for burgers that fall apart on the grill, and that can be frustrating.
One way to make burger meat stick together better is to mix a pound of ground venison with a half-pound of high-fat ground pork. The pork fat is sticky and will help the venison burger bind. If you’re not a pork fan, here’s a different way to make venison bind together better: Just add one egg and 1/4-cup bread crumbs per pound of meat. Add seasonings, too, while you’re at it. Stir until just mixed.
Seasoning ideas to add, either by themselves or in a combination, include: rosemary, sage, paprika, chili powder, basil, kosher salt, ground black pepper, dried mustard, powdered onion, garlic powder, McCormick Steak Seasoning and McCormick Garlic & Herb Seasoning.
Make sliders (little burgers) for small appetites, or for appetizer trays. And do anything with venison burgers that you would do with beef burgers — cheeseburgers, bacon cheeseburgers, burgers topped with sautéed mushrooms, as just a few examples.
Patty melts are a cross between burgers and sandwiches, utilizing bread instead of a bun. Who doesn’t love a patty melt? Especially a venison one, with all of the onions and gooey cheese adding moisture and zing. Here’s how to make a patty melt:
Sauté onions (trick: make the slices ultra-thin) in 2 tablespoons of butter until translucent and lightly golden (caramelized). Remove the onions from the pan.
Form the meat patty so it will fit the bread. Some people like rye, others sourdough. Use your imagination. Cook the patty to desired doneness.
Butter the bread on one side; put buttered side down on hot griddle, put one thick slice of cheese followed by onions then cooked patty, followed by another slice of cheese. Butter one side of the other slice of bread and place on top with buttered side out.
Fry until the bread is crisp but not burned, turn over and do the same on the other side. Cheese should be well melted.
Don’t forget Juicy Lucys in the burger category. Simple enough, a Juicy Lucy is a cheeseburger with the cheese on the inside rather than the outside. Form two thinner patties, place a slice of cheese on one, place the other patty on top and seal up the Juicy Lucy around the edges. Grill or pan fry so all of the meat is cooked and the cheese melted.
Steak Sandwiches
Venison is perfect for steak sandwiches. While it’s OK to just grill a steak and put it between two pieces of crusty bread, there’s a better and more classic way to make steak sandwiches.
The trick is to thin-slice raw venison into thin strips, then flash-cook them in a dab of oil. Use ultra-chilled (not quite thawed out and just a little frozen) meat, so you can slice it ultra-thin.
Sauté some onion and pepper slices first and have them ready to go. Don’t use too much oil with the steak — you want it to sear fast and cook up quickly. Use Hoagie rolls, French bread or other good hard-crusted buns, and pile up the meat. Add the veggies, au jus on the side and call it a French dip. Top with some provolone cheese (the hot meat and veggies will melt it), and you have a Philly cheese steak sandwich.
Gyros
Here’s another idea using steak slices: Make the Greek sandwich known as the gyro.
Thin-slice venison steak and sear it up quick-and-hot. Add diced tomatoes and grilled onions to half a pita shell and fill the rest with cooked meat. But the key to a great gyro is tzatziki sauce. Here’s how to make it:
Combine Greek yogurt, sour cream, diced cucumber and garlic in a food processor and puree until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and fold in olive oil, dill, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until combined and season to taste with salt and pepper. Drizzle on your gyro.
Other Ideas
Don’t have enough venison sandwich ideas stacked up yet? Take some of these concepts and run with them.
Sausage Sandwiches: Slice a brat, Polish or kielbasa in two, grill while you sauté some onions on the side, and serve on Hoagie rolls.
Meatloaf Sandwiches: Make an extra meatloaf when you’re creating one for dinner and have plenty of leftovers for meatloaf sandwiches for lunches.
Meatball Sandwiches: Meatballs aren’t just for spaghetti, or for use as stand-alone appetizers. Use meatballs to create meatball sandwiches. A jar of commercial spaghetti sauce makes for a fine meatball sauce, but you can make your own thick tomato sauce, too.
Breakfast Sandwiches: Fry up a slice of summer sausage and use it as the base for a breakfast sandwich of sausage, egg and cheese on a toasted English muffin or bagel.
Conclusion
The words “venison” and “sandwich” haven’t traditionally teamed up. But now you’re set with the concepts, ideas and recipes you need to make it happen — and to make even better use of every deer you harvest. It’s sandwich time!
