PORTER'S COUNTRY STYLE VENISON STEAK & GRAVY

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 lbs. cubed Venison steak, back strap or loin and/or cubed Beef steak
2 medium size onions – sliced (optional if you use Lipton onion soup mix)
1/3 stick butter
1 large egg
1 cup whole or evaporated milk
1 cup plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper and 1 teaspoon Wild Bill's Meat Rub
1 can (26 ozs.) Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup or your favorite brand
1/2 can (13) ozs.) water - add amount to get soup thick or thin
1 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet Seasoning & Browning Sauce
1 teaspoon Morton table salt - to taste (See Additional Notes comment)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black peppercorns (Tellicherry)  - to taste
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon Wild Bill's Meat Rub
Meat tenderizer (optional)
1 Package Lipton Onion Soup mix (add to mushroom soup)  Note:  I now use IGA brand,  Lipton brand has gotten too salty.

I currently hand cube my venison and sprinkle both sides of meat with MSG,  a little meat tenderizer, Sauer brand and a good sprinkling of my Wild Bill's Meat Rub and let set for about 30 minutes to an hour to come up to room temperature!

Preheat electric frying pan to 375 degrees with cooking oil of your choice.

In another pan, sauté sliced onions in butter until caramelized if not using the onion soup mix.  I do use both at times!

Beat egg and milk together, this is the drench.  Dip steaks into egg/milk mixture and coat steaks with seasoned flour, this is the dredge.  Brown steak on both sides and drain on paper towels or a bakers rack suspended over a baking pan.  Drain oil from pan after removing steak.  Add 1/2 +- can of water to can cream of mushroom soup and blend in seasoning and browning sauce until the desired color is obtained.  Add sautéed onions to the mushroom soup mixture.

Note: Add amount of water until you get the thickness desired and add one half of the mushroom soup mixture to the electric frying pan.  Place browned steak back into electric frying pan and balance of the mushroom soup mixture on top.  Place lid onto pan and cook on simmer setting until steak is tender; 1 to 2 hours.   Turn steak over about halfway of cooking time.  This meal can be left in the frying pan on simmer for several hours if desired while preparing others dishes, etc.

Serve with rice of your choice, noodles or mashed potatoes.  Steamed/cooked cabbage seasoned with "fat back" goes very well with this.

YIELD:  4 to 6 servings

Above Venison Cubed Steak and Gravy prepared on 07-10-13 with onion and mushroom gravy.  I used the back or loin strap that was sliced about 3/8 inch thick and hand cubed it.  Served with some left over veggie and yellow rice, broccoli and cheese, basic tossed salad and garlic bread.  The venison was very tender and had a wonderful taste.  I didn't use onion soup mix this time.

Below sequence pixs and narrative comments below:

Today 08-09-08 I am fixing the Porter's Country Style Venison Steak & Gravy using sauté onions instead of the onion soup mix and using an electric skillet instead of the oven.  Below a few pixs taken along the way.

Everything about set up and ready to go...the venison cubed steak had some meat tenderizer and a little Wild Bill's Dry Meat Rub sprinkled on them and allowed to get to room temperature taking about 30 minutes.  The drench (liquid) is one egg with about 1/2 cup white milk beat together and the dredge is plain flour with salt and fresh ground black pepper added.  The 26 oz can of Cream of Mushroom soup and about 13 oz. of tap water and 1 tablespoon of browning and seasoning sauce was added to a mixing bowl and blended together. 

The venison steak frying in a very well used vintage Towne Craft electric skillet browning on both sides.  Skillet temperature is usually set between 375 and 400 degrees.  After browning, cubed steaks will be removed from the skillet and placed on a paper towel to drain excess cooking oil ....... the cooking oil from the electric skillet will be removed and the mushroom gravy and sauté onion mixture will be added back to the skillet adding the browned cubed steaks and allowed to simmer (covered) for a couple hours....the longer the better.  The beauty of the Towne Craft waterless cookware, the lids fit the pans like a tight glove and will vacuum seal when the temperature of the pot, pan or skillet is allowed to cool down. 

Those browned venison cubed steaks look good enough to eat "rat" now.  These steaks are actually from the loin instead of the hind quarter and therefore are much smaller in size, but that doesn't hinder their "beautimous" taste and they are a better cut of venison in my opinion!

Caramelized sweet onions about ready to be added to the mushroom gravy.

Next pix of the cubed venison steak and gravy after simmering a couple hours.  The last thirty minutes or so, the "sticky" rice was cooked,  yellow corn, green sweet peas and buttermilk biscuits were baked.

We are certainly working our way up to the Grand Finally with the little digital camera and I am getting seriously hungry too.  Without further ado, lets take a look at the venison country style steak and gravy on the plate with a few sides, not to mention a handful of small biscuits for sopping up that wonderful gravy.

With wild game,  I call dishes like this one "Fruits of the Harvest",  locally harvested venison by yours truly and home grown deck tomatoes.

Prepared and photographed by Bill Porter with my "bride" Tweet aka Joyce doing the finishing touches to the plate and placemat.

Note: This is my favorite cubed venison steak recipe.  All of my deer hunter and non-hunting friends that have eaten this venison recipe most often go back for seconds and want a copy of the recipe.

Comments by Mickey Porter February 12, 1999.

Recipe by Joyce Porter.  "Tweet" aka my bride will usually re-cube the venison with an aluminum hand meat tenderizer, pounding the "daylights" out of the steak and will also sprinkle each piece of meat with some standard meat tenderizer.  Her venison comes out very, very tender when prepared this way.

Additional Notes:  If using Onion Soup Mix, do not add any salt.  Currently using IGA brand since less sodium than Lipton brand. 11-10-07.

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 07-10-13.