Rolled Venison Braise, Camp Kitchen Version
Pounded venison rolled around bacon, mustard, onion, and pickle, then braised slow in a dutch oven.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 105 min
- total time
- 135 min
- water
- 500 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Venison roast or backstrap | 2 lb | any cut, including the tough ones |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon | 12 slices | two per roll |
| Brown mustard | 1/4 cup | |
| Onion | 1 large | cut into slivers |
| Dill pickle spears | 6 | |
| Beef bouillon | 2 cubes | dissolved in 500 ml water |
| Flour | 1/4 cup | for dusting and thickening |
| Oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Slice the venison across the grain into six slabs, then pound each one flat between two sheets of plastic. Thin is the whole point.
- Cook the bacon partway in the dutch oven over the fire, four or five minutes. It should bend, not snap. Pull it and leave the fat behind.
- Season each slab, smear it with mustard, and lay on two bacon slices, a pickle spear, and a handful of onion slivers. Roll it up tight and pin it shut with a toothpick or a loop of butcher's twine.
- Dust the rolls in flour and brown them all over in the bacon fat. Work in batches so they sear instead of steam.
- Return everything to the pot, pour in the bouillon, and cover. Bank coals under and on the lid.
- Hold a slow bubble for about 90 minutes, turning the rolls once. Add a splash of water if the pot runs dry.
- Pull the rolls out, whisk the leftover flour into the liquid, and let it tighten into gravy. Remove the toothpicks before anyone bites down on one.
Venison is lean, which means the usual cuts go leathery the moment you cook them past rare. This recipe solves that twice over. Pounding breaks the muscle fibers before heat ever touches them, and a long wet braise finishes the job. That is why it works on the mystery cuts and the roasts nobody wanted, not just the backstrap.
The bacon is structural, not decorative. Venison has almost no internal fat, so the roll needs a fat source on the inside to baste the meat as it cooks. Half-cooking the bacon first matters: raw bacon in a 90-minute braise renders into something limp and pale. Everything happens in one pot, so the fond from browning ends up in the gravy.
Packing
Meat rides frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws over the drive. Pound it at home and stack the slabs with parchment between if you want to cut camp prep in half. Mustard, bouillon, and flour live in the dry box.
Variations
- Mushrooms, carrots, or a strip of potato in place of the pickle. The pickle is what makes it German, but the roll does not care.
- No dutch oven: a deep skillet with a tight lid over low coals works, just watch the liquid more closely.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/venison-rouladen