I grew up in a small town in Michigan; my father didn’t hunt but many of my male relations; uncles, cousins, etc did go deer hunting. Genuine wild venison was a feature of the autumn in my childhood. Cooking venison was focused on two things; moderating the game taste and getting the best from genuinely free range lean meat. Slow cooking is one great way to accomplish both of those things.

Much commercially available venison is close to ‘ranched’ but if you’ve got your hands on genuine wild venison, this is your recipe. I suggest a cut with the bone in – venison shanks do amazing in this recipe but monitor the cooking time. The more bone and connective tissue, the longer it will need to cook.

I had a piece of boneless venison haunch and I probably cooked it for an hour longer than it needed. Still tasted great but the meat got a little bit drier than it should have.

There is no browning of meat here – why brown meat you’re going to cover in herbs, dark beer, vegetables and stock? It is very easy to make your venison tough when browning. If it makes you feel better, roll the meat in a little flour before putting it in the slow cooker.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 200 grams bacon lardons
• 2 large or 4 small carrots
• 2 beef stock pots or 4 stock cubes
• 1.5 to 2 kilos of venison, either whole or cut in chunks. If on the bone, leave on the bone, this really adds flavour
• Cooking brandy
• 1 large bottle (or can) of Guinness Extra Stout or other dark stout. I had a bottle of chocolate stout (who knows why) that I used
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 square of bittersweet chocolate
• 1 cup of pearl barley

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Instructions

• Get your slow cooker ready and put the meat in it on high heat while you are prepping the sauce and vegetables.
• Use a large deep frying pan, heat the olive oil with a small pat of butter to medium high heat.
• Add the onions, garlic and carrots. Cook over medium high heat for two minutes. Then add the bacon lardons. Cook until the onions and garlic are softened.
• Throw a couple of tablespoons of cooking brandy on the vegetables, turn up the heat and burn off the alcohol.
• Turn the heat back to medium, add the beef stock cubes or stock pots and soften.
• Pour in the dark stout, again turn up the heat to burn off the alcohol. Get it to a nice burble, then add the brown sugar, the herbs and the square of chocolate.
• Once all the above are incorporated, add some water (not too much). Once back to a slow simmer, pour all the sauce onto the meat in the slow cooker.
• Cook for 4 to 6 hours on high, depending on the cut of meat you’ve used. This is not exact but the bigger the piece of meat and if it has a bone in it – the longer it will need to cook. A shank will take longer to cook than a piece of boneless haunch. Keep checking the meat for tenderness, when you can see it is falling apart or you can stick a table knife in, it’s ready. About 90 minutes before your expected finish time, add the pearl barley. (Or add the pearl barley after 3 hours). It absorbs the excess sauce, cooks up beautifully and makes this a direct to the bowl meal.

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I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Keep on cooking, baking and commenting. Let me have your feedback and requests.