Venison Loin With Bourbon Mushroom Cream Sauce
Grilled backstrap and a dried-morel pan sauce built from shelf-stable cream powder.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 5, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 300 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
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Venison loin | 2 lb | backstrap, trimmed; keeps in the cooler on ice |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon | 4 slices | chopped, renders the fat the sauce needs |
| Dried morel mushrooms | 1 oz | rehydrates to roughly 8 oz fresh |
| Butter | 3 tbsp | cooler item, or use ghee and skip the ice |
| Shallot | 1 large | minced; travels fine unrefrigerated |
| All-purpose flour | 2 tbsp | |
| Bourbon | 1/4 cup | |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | stands in for a carton of stock |
| Heavy cream powder | 1/3 cup | reconstitutes at about 1 part powder to 2 parts water |
| Grated parmesan | 1/3 cup | the shelf-stable canister kind is fine here |
| Kosher salt and ground white pepper | to taste | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Put the morels in a cup with 200 ml of hot water and leave them 20 minutes. Lift them out, chop, and save the soaking liquid but pour it off the grit at the bottom.
- Salt and pepper the loin and set it over a hot grate. Turn it every couple of minutes until the outside is dark and the middle is still rare, 8 to 10 minutes total. Pull it onto a plate and leave it alone.
- Set a skillet on the grate and crisp the bacon. Add the butter and shallot, cook two minutes, then the morels for two more.
- Sprinkle the flour over and stir it around for a minute. Pour in the bourbon and let it cook down until the pan is nearly dry.
- Stir the bouillon into the mushroom soaking liquid and add it to the pan. Whisk the cream powder with 100 ml of water and pour that in. Simmer until it coats the spoon.
- Off the heat, stir in the parmesan and parsley. Slice the loin across the grain and spoon the sauce over.
This started as a home kitchen dish and needed two changes to work at a fire ring. Fresh morels became dried ones, which weigh nothing and bring their own soaking liquid to use as stock. Heavy cream became cream powder, which reconstitutes thick enough to hold a sauce and does not spoil in a warm cooler.
The flour matters more than it looks. Venison is lean and the sauce has no braising liquid behind it, so without a roux the cream splits over live fire. Cook the loin rare and let it rest while you build the sauce; carryover heat from a grate is aggressive and will take it to medium on the plate.
Packing
Flour, bouillon, cream powder, parmesan, and parsley go in one jar labeled sauce. Morels ride in a small bag; they weigh almost nothing dry. Bourbon in a flask. Loin, bacon, and butter live in the cooler.
Variations
- Beef sirloin or a thick pork chop works the same way if there is no venison in the freezer.
- No bourbon: a splash of apple cider vinegar plus a spoon of brown sugar covers the same job.
- Dried shiitake for a third the price of morels, with a heavier flavor.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/grilled-venison-loin-with-morel-mushroom-bourbon-cream-sauce