I've got a bunch of bacon-wrapped filets and some plain tenderloins and I'm looking for suggestions for seasonings (if any), cooking techniques, etc. Thank you!

If whole, reverse sear. Salt, pepper, and some minced garlic in the oil.

If sliced, reverse sear works as well but sometimes I just toss straight in the skillet. Same seasoning.

ETA: I saw your comment after I had typed mine. Definitely leave the tenderloins whole, slice after cooking.

+1 reverse sear.

If you have two tenderloins, stack them and tie them togoether, and then do the reverse sear. Don't cook them past medium rare; rare is better.

Take the bacon off and have it for breakfast.

Salt, pepper, and olive oil. Sous vide real low then sear real hot. Garlic and juniper berry if you're feeling adventurous.

Can't mess it up.

What the heck is a reverse sear?

Put through a meat grinder and make hamburger patties.

Before you do anything, I recommend an overnight brine in a bowl with water, kosher salt and a little soy sauce -- this will keep it from drying out, and will prevent gaminess.

cook the bacon halfway -- about 8-9 minutes on a cookie sheet in a 400 degree oven. if you start with the bacon raw, the tenderloins will be overcooked before the bacon is done.

Pepper the venison, then wrap in the half-cooked bacon.

Lay on a hot grill, cover, and take it off the grill when it gets to 125-128 degrees. How long depends entirely on the size of the cuts. 2-3 minutes per side for tenderloins, 3-4 for backstrap. Wrap in foil to rest. The temperature will rise to 135 or so -- medium rare.

Don't overcook it unless you like tough liver.

slice at an angle.

will.mcg said:

---

What the heck is a reverse sear?

---

I had to look it up cause I didn't know either...

Cook steaks in the oven to desired doneness, then sear them in a hot skillet.

On this last deer I cut the backstrap into 4-6" chunks. Tonight I used the tried and true olive oil, sea salt, and course ground pepper. Set the grill to sear, about one min per side and then cut the heat back and set straps up on upper rack until they hit about 125. Perfection in my book

For our filets, I.do a marinade of soy sauace, olive oil, ground black pepper, fresh crushed garlic, paprika and a dash of Worcestershire and sear on cast iron on the grill. I don't soak them for more than a few minutes. It's a really nice flavor.

For tenderloins, chicken fry is my favorite.

By filet, i am assuming you mean backstrap.

Forget all of the sous vide and reverse sear nonsense, get a cast iron skillet hotter than hell, season with some,salt, pepper and garlic (i like a little thyme as well), sear for about 45 seconds to 1 minute per side. If the bacon isnt done, sear the bacon as well to finish it off. Takes just a couple of seconds on each side to crisp the bacon up.

No need to take a 3 minute cook time and,make it into something complicated or long. Keep it simple.

Remove bacon and chicken fry.

wesag said:

---

Remove bacon and chicken fry.

---

Why would you remove the bacon? Chicken fried with a bacon wrap is pure glory on a plate.

I cooked a couple of venison tenderloins on the grill and they were tough as heck and tasteless. I think I'm going back to just straight chicken frying the rest.

Such Delicate palates.

Sous vide all day errday. Get the perfect temperature every time. Or chicken fry them especially after a fried rib appetizer. Really, y'all should cut the ribs into individual ribs and fry until crispy and cover in some Tony's. Its like crackling on a stick.

schmellba99 said:

---

wesag said:

---

Remove bacon and chicken fry.

---

Why would you remove the bacon? Chicken fried with a bacon wrap is pure glory on a plate.

---

I've done chicken fried backstrap and bacon wrapped backstrap/tenderloin but never chicken fried bacon wrapped backstrap...
Now I know what I'm doing for new year's Eve...

Tx-Ag2010 said:

---

schmellba99 said:

---

wesag said:

---

Remove bacon and chicken fry.

---

Why would you remove the bacon? Chicken fried with a bacon wrap is pure glory on a plate.

---

I've done chicken fried backstrap and bacon wrapped backstrap/tenderloin but never chicken fried bacon wrapped backstrap...
Now I know what I'm doing for new year's Eve...

---

It's phenomenal. You'll want to stick your pecker into it. That good.

We went very simple: marinated a few hours in a concoction of olive oil, soy sauce, pepper, and salt. Seared each side about 2 minutes, then put on the grill indirect at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Perfectly medium (maybe a tad on the medium rare side). Fantastic!

http://honest-food.net/2011/08/11/venison-steak-diane/

This is amazing!! Key is not over-cooking-bake some French bread to sop up blood, juice and Diane sauce.

Already made this twice this winter

Good stuff
Above

I've had good luck w Olive Oil, cocoa powder, red cooking wine, garlic salt, black pepper, worcestshire, sage

Marinade for 30 min to infinity and Grill or pan roast to medium rare

Cooked part of one yesterday.

Thin coat of oil, koser salt, and cracked pepper. Put in the oven at 425 on a broiler pan for 7 minutes. Took out and seared in a cast iron pan for 3 minutes each side. A perfect rare to medium rare.

Was delicious!

One of my favorite recipes is this:
1. Split and tenderize
2. Coat in dry ranch. This is optional and it is just as good either way. If not ranch, I salt and pepper.
3. Pepperoni, cheese, and fresh jalapeos/serranos on the inside.
4. Roll and wrap with bacon.
5. Smoke to rare medium.
Slice and serve.

I am pretty sure I could use this on buzzard and it would be edible.

IMO Garlic Salt does something magical to venison.

cornbreadn_beans said:

---

http://honest-food.net/2011/08/11/venison-steak-diane/

This is amazing!! Key is not over-cooking-bake some French bread to sop up blood, juice and Diane sauce.

Already made this twice this winter

---

That's a good one.

If you haven't already, try his gin and juniper berry sauce recipe. That's my favorite.

I tried this on an Axis tenderloin 3 weeks ago and it was amazing. Then, tonight I tried it on some blackstrap from an Illinois buck I shot last month and it wasn't too good. Much more gamie taste. The axis was marinated for 24 hours and the whitetail was marinated for 6 or so hours. So that might be a part of the problem.

Put meat in gallon zip lock bag
Added soy sauce, garlic salt, season salt, olive oil, worcherser sauce and a squirt or two of lemon juice. Cooked to medium. Some was medium rare.

It was so good with the axis, I was sure it would be as good with whitetail. No so much! I still have 2 more fillets marinating, so I'll give it another shot tomorrow.

If it's still bad, I'll need to try something else. Never soaked in butter milk (or any milk), but I might have to try that next.

Should I have done something differently??

Alright, so I freely admit that I'm a fan of eating well-prepared offal such as heart and liver. Venison heart & liver is awful tasty IMHO when prepared right (this often means simply and not over cooked). And suffice it to say that I'm a fan of wild game as well and eat as much as I can legally shoot or get from friends.

So, I'm mystified by what y'all are describing as "gamey." What, specifically is the gamey flavor you're referring to because I've not experienced it. Maybe I'm an oddity but I've often cooked game for people who claim to not like it, specifically venison and duck, and they've all liked what I've cooked.

I'll admit they were a bit leery of trying duck breasts seared rare or venison cooked to a medium-rare like the above picture but they were all converts and every single one of them said they were scared to undercook game.

Finn, any rec's for the liver?

Growing up grandad used every single bit of the animal, and I'm slowly trying to get back to that. Started cooking the heart last season, and I'm definitely hooked on that. Liver is the next step, but I'm not sure how I wanna proceed.

BTW, for the heart, I trim, slice into 3/4" to 1" slices, salt and pepper the meat, sautee some wild onions and garlic in olive oil, then turn up the heat, and sear the slices for about 90 seconds per side, pour over a bit of merlot after I flip it.

For the liver I've done both traditional liver & onions where the same commandment holds true for venison as it does calf's liver- do not overcook it (medium-rare at most)- and I've made a venison liver pate.

I think the pate is a good means to introduce people to offal because it doesn't look threatening and it's mixed with other stuff. There are recipes out there but I've sort of winged it myself by doing basically the following:
- sear livers medium-rare in butter
- cook some bacon and reserve the fat
- caramelize shallots & garlic in the bacon fat
- deglaze the pan with some sherry & reduce
- put it all into a food processor with a little bit of heavy cream and fresh parsley, blend until smooth
- salt & pepper to taste
- place in saran-wrapped loaf pan and chill for a few hours

With the hearts I basically do what you did- break it down to remove the valves, connective tissue, etc. Then rub with olive oil, salt & pepper, and skewer on sticks of rosemary. Grill rare over high heat.