My son Chris He is a hard working fella, as I have mentioned before, he worked 2 jobs during deer season, and so he didn't get to do much hunting, I was looking like it would be a deer-less season for him, but the last day of the season he bagged himself a deer. It wasn't hunted and killed in the traditional way, He was out doing something else when he ran across this young buck.



It was as if God gift wrapped it for him. I guess after his months and months of skinning for everyone else in town, God thought he deserved one of his own, and here it was ready and waiting for him. Truthfully I didn't know if my son would have it in him to kill a deer. He is the kid who has brought home strays, and injured birds, and rabbits and tried to nurse them back to health. Never with much luck but not for lack of trying. But given that he has skinned deer for 2 seasons now, and given the fact that it was the kindest thing to do for this deer. His leg was broken, and he had some pretty gnarly injuries. He did it and tonight we enjoyed venison spaghetti. Thanks to God, and this deer who gave his life so we could have meat in our freezer. It is appreciated.

I am still curious about what was going on in this deer's life prior to this that would get him tangled in a fence that way.

So here is what the deer spaghetti looks like, and then Ill talk a little about deer meat and how to cook it.




If you are not familiar with deer meat, let me say that it has a certain "twang" for lack of a better word. It's not a bad flavor but if you are not used to eating it, you might not care for it. There are certain steps you have to take when cooking any wild game to take the gamey flavor out of it. I read somewhere once that the more scared a deer gets at the time of the kill the worse the gamey flavor can be. I don't know how much truth is in that statement, but it does make sense to me that it might be truth, when you get scared the adrenaline flows, and maybe part of that taste is what adrenaline tastes like.

With other cuts of meat the best thing to do is soak the meat in a salty milk brine for 24 hours before cooking.. It will tastes almost exactly like beef after that if prepared right. But you can't very well do that with ground venison. So what do you do with that?

Well, first, the processor offered a package that was ground venison with bacon, which came with bacon already ground into it, which helped alot, not only with flavor, but with fat content. (another thing you should know about cooking deer is that it has very little fat and fat is flavor. you always want to add some fat source to venison.)

The next thing you need to know is deer meat has a very strong flavor, so you want to pair it with very strong flavors. If you don't your deer meat will over power the other flavors in your dish and it wont be as yummy as it otherwise might be.  If I had to compare the taste of deer meat to some other thing, I think I'd compare it to burnt.. To me deer meat has a subtle taste of something that scorched to the bottom of your pot and you try to serve anyway without scraping up the bottom of the pot but everyone still gets that burned flavor anyway. To me it tastes like that.

So my deer cooking tips are these..

If you have a no ground cut of deer meat, always soak the venison in a VERY salty milk bath for 24 hours before cooking. then rinse very well (I was in my 30's before i realized venison and deer were the same thing.. :P)

With ground cuts, add lots of fat and flavor...

Now, for what you came here for.. Well.. almost... I want to share a link with you first.. I was searching venison recipes when I stumbled onto this site that has lots on all sorts of game animals. It's worth a look.. brokenarrowranch.com


Now with all my rambling over let me tell you about this spaghetti. I made a huge pot of it, and am pleased to report there were no leftovers. I saw 2 plantationites go back for seconds, and baby Paisley gobbled it up too.

As i mentioned you want to add fat to deer meat because it has almost no fat. So the fat sources I used were butter, ground pork sausage, and italian dressing.. Why wouldn't I add italian dressing to an italian dish??

and then I added LOTS of flavor, onion, garlic, chili powder, sugar, worchestershire sauce, lots of basil, oregano, bay leaves.. just lots of yummy flavors

It's my experience that the foods that have the most flavor are the ones who have the most smell.. So.. The eyes might be the first critic of your cooking but the smell comes into play too, even before taste factors in.. Make it smell good!!!

I just went to put up leftovers and guess what... There are no leftovers...

So.. you ready for that recipe?? Cuz Im ready to give it to you, and all in one pot..



One Pot Venison Spaghetti

1 lb ground venison (deer;bacon mixture is what I used)
1/2 lb ground pork sausage ( jimmy dean mild ground sausage is what I used)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp italian dressing (shaken well)
1/3 cup chopped sweet onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 can petite diced tomatoes
2 tbsp dried basil ( I love sweet basil)
1/2 tbsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp porchini mushroom powder
2 1/2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 large jars ragu spaghetti sauce (choice of flavor)
1 can hunts canned spaghetti sauce
2 hunts cans of water (or chicken broth)
1 small box spaghetti sauce broke into thirds
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp black pepper(ro to taste)
1 tbsp salt (or to taste)

cook low and slow

in cast iron skillet  melt butter and add well shaken italian dressing, sweet onion, minced garlic, then ground venison and ground jimmy dean sausage and stir until meats are well combined and browned, add all other ingredients except pasta and simmer fr 10 minutes on low heat giving flavors a chance to form then add spaghetti pasta broken into thirds and dropped into sauce stirring frequentlybecause pasta will stick together i not stirred well. after all pasta has been added and mixed in well, cover with lid and simmer over low heat ( i use 3 on my electric oven) for 45 minutes to 1 hour until pasta is done.. when pasta i done dish is fully cooked.

This is a very saucy spaghetti so I would recommend serving with a garlic bread of some sort. We used hamburger buns butters with a mix of butter, sea salt and minced garlic from the fridge section of our grocery store and then sprinkled with parmesan cheese. and broiled for approx 8 to 10 minutes.. Trust me you want the bread.. lots of juices to sop up on that bread..

You can take the bay leaves out or proclaim the finder of the leaves is the one who will have luck for the next 24 hours.. My folks seem to enjoy feeling lucky for 24 hours but you do whichever...