Grill-Basted Venison Steaks
A forum marinade for lean game: half oil, half barbecue sauce, brushed on over coals.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 53
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Venison roast or steaks | 2 lb | cut into steaks about an inch thick |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 1/2 cup | |
| Barbecue sauce | 1/2 cup | equal parts with the oil, that ratio is the whole recipe |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Celery salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Lemon juice concentrate | 1 tsp | |
| Rum extract | 1/4 tsp | a quarter teaspoon is plenty, it goes medicinal fast |
Method
- At home, shake the oil, barbecue sauce, garlic powder, celery salt, Italian seasoning, lemon juice, and rum extract together in a screw-top bottle. It separates in the cooler. Shake it again at camp.
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals, or run a propane grill at medium. You want steady heat, not flames, because the oil will flare.
- Set the grate about four inches over the coals. Lay the meat on dry and let it take color, three or four minutes.
- Flip and start basting. Brush the mix on the cooked side every time you turn it, roughly every two minutes.
- Pull the steaks at medium-rare, when the center still gives under a thumb. Venison past medium turns to liver and rope.
- Rest five minutes on a foil sheet before cutting.
Venison has almost no intramuscular fat, so it dries out before it browns and it has nothing to carry seasoning past the surface. The half-oil, half-barbecue-sauce mix fixes both problems at once: the oil coats the meat and moves the garlic, celery salt, and Italian seasoning into it, and the sauce sugars give you crust over direct coals.
Baste after each flip rather than marinating overnight. Sugar sitting on hot lean meat burns, and the acid in a long soak turns the outer layer mealy. Rum extract and lemon are both there in trace amounts to cut the sweetness. Measure them. This needs a cooler and real coals, so it is a car-camping dinner, not a pack-in one.
Packing
Marinade mix rides in a leakproof bottle in the cooler with the meat. Bring a silicone brush and a sheet of heavy foil to cover the grate and catch drips, which is the difference between wiping down and scrubbing.
Variations
- No rum extract on hand: a splash of dark rum or bourbon does the same job.
- Cube the meat and run it on skewers over the same coals, basting the whole time.
- Beef sirloin works with the same mix, but cut the oil to a third since it brings its own fat.
https://www.archerytalk.com/threads/recipe.3679