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Venison loin ?

fisher23

One of my neighbors gave me a four inch piece of venison loin. He said it was tougher than most he has had. I was thinking of doing it SV at 142° F for 24-36 hours. Packaged with garlic and herbs, then cryofry (dry ice) to finish. Any other suggestions? I want to impress him with sous vide.

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HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

I think sous vide is the only way to go....Johan may have ideas....I found venison to be a real pain. It is so lean that if you hit it with any kind of high heat it seizes up to radiator hose consistency.....I don't know about you but I quit eating radiator hose 4 or 5 years ago, it hurts my teeth and gives me gas...

fisher23

@Johan_Edstrom_5586 any thoughts?

tshewman

Dude, IMHO that is WAY too long. I know you're thinking "tough" venison, but you would probably enjoy it MUCH more at ~55-57C for 30-40min (I'm assuming it's fairly thin). It goes REALLY well with the savory granola from Alinea (I've made probably 6-7 different versions/spin-offs - one is below and I've actually done a power bar).

The ones below are a slice done via SV 56C and for the same meal roasted inside the granola for 5min at 400F (which barely cooked it). Would also make a great tartare.

seijoed

What Todd said. For a shoulder I'd maybe do the longer time at 54-55 for 48h

fisher23

Normally I would agree, but this is abnormally tough. He cooked a piece last night and let me try it, pan fried to 135°F ish, it was still nice and red. The flavor was great but the texture was very, very tough and chewy, made my jaw hurt it was so chewy. Maybe 131°F (55° C) for 12 hours?

fisher23

I hear you but honestly this is the toughest loin I have ever tasted. See my comment to Johan.

rutjens

Hi John, as Todd also mentioned, Loin normally works best low for 45min, finished with a quick sear (I keep it a bit lower (52C) in the SV because the searing normally takes it up to a perfect 54C. Shoulder etc. I SV for 10h at 58C. I ran some tests on roe deer and venison and to prevent pate formation during SV I found it is critical to shorten the cooking time (https://www.chefsteps.com/forum/posts/roe-deer-poulet-sous-vide ).

fisher23

Yes, I hear you and appreciate your comments, however this is not a normal loin. It is exceedingly tough. I think I'll try 55° for 10-12 hours. I'll check it after the first hour and re-bag and keep cooking until tender.

tshewman

I'm not sure how much more tender it will get as Venison loin tends to be very lean and the collagen is mostly in muscle tissue thus aligned in parallel. Connective tissue that is dense (or not) and not as "regular" or parallel) will yield more tender results as broken down. The extreme (e.g. pate' like consistency) is sort of the exception to the rule, but typically not preferred. As we cook, those parallel lines shorten (contract) and if there is no irregular connective tissue within, no matter how long we cook it, it is unlikely to make it more tender. I'm interested in seeing what you find out in your trials. Cool learning lesson for all of us.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

I hate asking is-the-device-plugged-in questions of this group, but..... was it butchered properly? Are the bits being sliced against the grain?

tshewman

Good question. Though from a 4inch slice, there should be enough left to slice it properly (IMHO). The origin of he complaint however, may have not sliced it properly.

fisher23

No it's cut correctly, it's just tough. Maybe it was an old deer?

fisher23

@Johan_Edstrom_5586 , @Todd_Shewman_38102 , @Bas_172446 , @HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134 , @Matthew_Snyder_68770 I really appreciate all your input. I ended up doing it at 55°C for just over 2 hours and I think it worked out great. At one hour I felt the bag and it was still a bit tight, at two hours I opened the bag and cut a piece off. Great texture, good flavor.... I think he will be impressed, it's 10 times more tender than his, this is eatable. He is a biologist and his wife is a professor, I think they will be good additions to ChefSteps and Joule converts.

I took this right after the bath, still going to cryofry it.

fisher23

BTW, this was mule deer venison.