Tenderizing lean but tough venison

Bought some frozen deer, not sure which cut. Made 2 testers this weekend 53C@6 hours & 53C@30 hours. The roast had parts that were ok, and some that wherever tough and chewy. I am aiming for a very tender texture though. The longer run did nothing to tenderise the meat, and I am hesitant to increase to 55C since i want the meat rare. If at 55C for a long time I am afraid it will loose too much moisture as well.

So how to pre-tenderize?

There are so many suggestions out there:

-marinade in milk

-marinade in vinegar

-marinade in acid

-marinade in alkaline/base

-butterfly, tenderize with meat mallet and truss/reassemble

-tenderizing powder

-tenderizing tool like http://kk.org/cooltools/jaccard-superte/

Anyone with experience in this?

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Comments

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Mechanics over chemistry. Use a mallet or a Jaccard.

HammeredChef_DEFINITELY_does_NOT_work_at_22134

absolutely beat the crap out of it or use this .....The Jaccard also will improve any marination process

fisher23

The Jaccard will help, it cuts the long stands, and help break it down. I would cook it at 54.5 (out of the danger zone) for 48 to 72 hours, the longer you cook the more tender it will get. I've cooked a fair amount of venison, tough cuts 36-72 hours, more tender as short as 2 hours. The main moisture loss happens in the first hour and minimally after that. Then slicing it fairly thin against the grain will also help with tenderness. During your cook, you can always pull the bag and feel for tenderness pressing on the meat through the bag and put it back for more time or even test a little piece. @Johan_Edstrom_5586 and @Todd_Shewman_38102 have both helped me with venison, I hope they have a minute to give their opinions as well. Good luck and please let us know how it works out.

tshewman

there's a difference? Isn't the mechanics helping to break up the chemistry? ;-)

Tom_Trones_421668

Thanks! I bought a Jaccard, and will try it out.

A few questions though:

-Will it create channels for juices to leak out of?

-Should I press down so that the knives are against or with the grain (or both)?

Tom_Trones_421668

Tried 24h@54,5C after jaccard'ing the roast. Definitely more tender, but in a slighlty mushy way. I would like with it a tad more bite and more rare. It lost some moisture in the bag, but not too much. I don't get a very juicy feeling when biting into the meat though... So far: Good, but not excellent.

Any flavour enhancers that would work well with venison in the SV bag?