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Broiled Venison Steaks
Cut the steaks an inch thick from the leg or the loin of venison. Make the gridiron hot, rub the bars with a little suet, and place the steaks upon it over a clear fire. Turn them every two minutes to preserve the gravy. Make the steak-dish very hot; put on it for each pound of venison an ounce of butter, a tablespoonful of liquid red-currant jelly, a tablespoonful of wine, or, as a substitute, boiling stock or water, and a little pepper and salt. Turn the broiled steaks in the sauce once or twice, and serve very hot. By way of variety, the butter only may be put into the dish under the steaks, and stewed mushrooms may be served with the venison; or thin slices of lemon may be laid on the steaks for the last two or three minutes that they are being broiled, and then served with them. Time, from twenty to twenty-five minutes to broil the steaks.
A straightforward broil whose sauce still works; the timing is the one thing to ignore. Venison is far leaner than beef and turns dry and liverish past medium-rare.
- Ignore the twenty-five minutesAn inch-thick venison steak over a hot fire wants roughly 3 to 4 minutes a side, pulled at 125-130F internal for rare to medium-rare. Twenty-five minutes over a modern heat source will produce something grey and tough.
- GridironA ridged cast-iron grill pan preheated until it smokes, or a charcoal grill raked to an even bed with no flame, gives the "clear fire" the recipe asks for. Wipe the bars with beef suet, or with any neutral high-smoke-point fat.
- Turning every two minutesFrequent turning is sound practice and does even out the cooking, though it does not literally hold gravy in. With the shorter total time above, one turn per side per minute is enough.
- The hot steak-dish is the pointWarm a shallow serving dish thoroughly, since the sauce is built in it rather than in a pan. Per pound of meat: 1 oz (2 tablespoons) butter, 1 tablespoon red currant jelly melted to a liquid, 1 tablespoon red wine or port, salt and pepper.
- Red-currant jellyStill sold, usually near the preserves; the smooth, seedless kind melts fastest. A tart redcurrant or lingonberry preserve substitutes well. Avoid sweetened cranberry sauce, which is much sweeter than the Victorian article.
- Cut and sourceLoin gives the tenderest steaks. Leg is leaner and firmer and benefits from being cut across the grain and rested a full five minutes. Farmed venison is milder and slightly fattier than wild and is the easier choice here.
- The lemon variationThin lemon slices laid on for the last two or three minutes is a short window in the compressed timing above; add them for the final minute instead, or simply serve a wedge alongside.
- YieldAllow 6 to 8 oz of steak per person, and scale the butter, jelly and wine by total weight as the recipe directs.