Corned Venison

Deer hunting season means time to replenish the year’s supply of venison. One of the things I look forward to each fall is making corned venison. It’s so easy to make, is more healthful than lunch meat from the store, and tastes great in sandwiches and on cold-cut plates.

Corning is the process of preserving meat by replacing its moisture with salt and spices. Essentially it’s a pickling process, and has nothing to do with corn (as in corn on the cob). I used to think the name refers to pepper corns, but historians say it refers to corns of course salt.

Celebrity chef Alton Brown inspired my recipe for corned venison. His recipe is, of course, for corned beef brisket. So I had to scale down the ingredients to deer size.

Saltpeter, or Not

Brown’s recipe, like most, calls for saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Some people say it improves the meat’s flavor and texture. I used it the first few times I corned venison, then decided against it because I’m not sure it’s healthful. Honestly, I can’t detect any difference in flavor or texture.

Saltpeter is widely used as a preservative to prevent botulism in cured meats. But I freeze my corned venison in small chunks, and defrost one chunk at a time for use. So that’s not a concern, as it would be for cured meat stored without refrigeration.

As far as I can determine, the main purpose for using saltpeter today is to make the meat pink instead of brown. Yet I often slice left-over pot roast (venison, of course) for lunch, and the fact that it’s not pink never bothered us. Besides, it’s usually covered with bread and cheese, so what difference does the color make? It’s the flavor that counts.

Recipe Notes

Corned beef traditionally calls for brisket, which is the part of the breast above the front legs. Each animal has two. When I want to corn more than just the briskets, I include the widest parts of the backstrap.

I make a few recipe substitutions based on things we grow rather than buy. For instance, we grow our own ginger, so I substitute a piece of fresh (or frozen) ginger for ground dried ginger. And we grow celeriac, so I use that instead of celery.

As a reminder, I write on the brining bag the date the venison should be rinsed and boiled. I lay the zipper bag in a Tupperware pie taker, since I worry it might leak, spilling brine all over my fridge. Wouldn’t you know: the latest time I corned venison, the first bag I used was leaky. Luckily, the brine was caught by the pie taker, so all I had to do was pour it into a fresh bag that didn’t leak.

Corned Venison

Stir until ice melts.

Refrigerate brine until it reaches 45ºF.

Keeping meat completely covered in brine, refrigerate for 10 days. Then rinse the brisket, discarding brine.

On high heat, bring brine to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and gently simmer 3 hours until meat is fork tender. Drain, saving broth for making soup.

Serve your corned venison thinly sliced across the grain. If you don’t plan to use it all right away, tightly wrap and freeze chunks for later use.

Can you home can corned venison? I’ve seen plenty of online instructions for doing so. But the National Center for Home Food Preservation says, “We cannot support the canning of cured, brined or corned meats with the procedures for fresh meats.” Clemson University Extension further explains why there is no safe process for corned meat. So let’s just go with freezing the corned venison.