Preparing a delicious venison roast can be a real challenge. The roast can quickly become tough and dry, and the worst mistakes happen right at the beginning.
Venison can be very tricky in the kitchen. It's a high art to cook the meat to perfection. The reason: It is extremely lean meat and doesn't allow much room for error.
With our guide, however, you can easily prepare a tender venison roast yourself. Here is the guide in video format.
The right preparation
To prepare a juicy venison roast from the oven or on the grill, you first need the right meat. Today we are opting for venison leg. The leg is the cut that is best suited for beginners. It is lean and therefore easy to digest.
We prepare the meat a little first. We need about one to two kilograms for 4 people. We only want to prepare the knuckle and bottom round into a tasty roast, which is weshy we separate the top round from the piece.
First, we trim the meat - removing all silver skin and bone fragments. We shape our roast, but we don't throw away our meat scraps. We need these for a hearty sauce. This way, you don't waste any of the meat and can confidently do without ready-made mixes or similar.
The right grill
Today we are preparing our roast in a Monolith grill. However, you can also use a pan and oven. That makes no difference for the preparation.
First, we heat up our grill. Because a Monolith is a ceramic grill fueled with charcoal, you should plan some time. The whole thing is also possible on a gas grill - but a ceramic grill still has advantages.
Especially when the grill is in use for a longer period, a Monolith is significantly more energy-efficient. It stores heat, so you can use the grill with just one load of charcoal for various dishes all evening.
Preparation of the venison leg
We brown our scraps with a little olive oil in a roasting pan on the grill and roast them until they are golden brown. Do this at a very low temperature, so you can safely prepare the vegetables at the same time.
If you are unsure, it is better to perform the steps one after the other. This way you avoid mistakes and you have a better overview of your ingredients.
Preparing the sauce
For a gravy, root vegetables and shallots are best. We cut the celery into rough cubes. We peel the carrots. We do the same with the parsley root. We cut both into matchstick-like strips, with the help of a Julienne slicer.
That's what it's called, by the way. Cutting vegetables julienne. It was probably named after an 18th-century French chef. However, the exact origin is unknown.
We make rings from the leek and halve our shallots. But we leave the skin on. This way the shallots can bring more umami to the sauce. To add an extra fruity note to the sauce, we peel an apple and also cut it Julienne.
The roast in the oven
By now, your scraps should be roasted. So, put the meat into the roasting pan and now increase the temperature. You need to sear the venison leg until it's golden brown on all sides. Keep an eye on the meat. It must not be overcooked under any circumstances, otherwise it will quickly become dry later.
Now sear the vegetables. Feel free to add a little more olive oil if there isn't enough left in the roasting pan or your skillet. A proper roast takes time and should always be something special.
Once the vegetables are seared, we deglaze with red wine. 200 to 300 ml should be enough. If you want to avoid alcohol, you can use stock. We let the wine reduce a little and then remove the roasting pan from the heat.
Now we come to the seasoning, for which we use our game seasoning. We add a pinch of it to our sauce base, but our venison leg gets the main seasoning.
You don't need to skimp on the seasoning. Cover your meat on both sides with this spice blend and gently massage it into the meat. Our game seasoning contains the perfect aromas for venison leg. Among other things, juniper berries and thyme, which always go excellently with all game dishes, but also the highlight, cocoa. An absolute recommendation from us. Especially because you then no longer have to worry about the right spices.
When we're done rubbing, we put the meat in the sauce and place the sealed roasting pan in the grill or your oven. At 150 degrees Celsius, the venison leg takes about 1.5 hours. Please cook the venison leg at this heat and cook it slowly. This is the only way it will stay juicy.
The side dishes
Meanwhile, we take care of the appropriate side dishes. Root vegetables in particular are an excellent complement to venison. Their seasonality overlaps, and at the same time, their slightly sweet and tart flavors harmonize with the nutty game meat. For this reason, we choose beetroot and potatoes.
We peel the beetroot and do the same with the potatoes. Then we roughly dice our vegetables into bite-sized pieces. For children, you can also divide the vegetables into smaller portions. It is important, however, that you wash the vegetables before you continue.
Take your clean vegetables and marinate them in olive oil. You don't have to hold back here either. Two to three tablespoons can certainly be used. Olive oil goes excellently with game and root vegetables, which is why we also complement it here again with our game seasoning. This gives us the ultimate kick!
The vegetables now go into an open roasting pan with our meat and can cook simultaneously with the venison leg.
As soon as our venison leg is ready, our side dish is too. So we take everything off the grill and strain our sauce. We set our meat aside and let it rest for a bit.
The sauce
We pour the sauce into a pot and place it on the stove. Now comes a real insider tip. We take about 50 grams of butter and stir it into the sauce.
Now just add a little cornstarch to thicken the sauce. This gives us a nice, creamy consistency, and we can now turn our attention to the meat.
Meanwhile, the meat juices have stabilized through resting, and the leg is very tender and juicy. We cut our venison leg with a sharp knife. Make sure to cut against the grain of the meat. This will cut through the fibers and make your venison leg even more tender.
Now we can arrange and serve our venison roast. We layer our main course with side dishes on a beautiful large plate and pour sauce over everything. After all, the eye eats first.
Our Conclusion
You see, if you take your time and make the right preparations, your venison roast will be a success. Always stick to lower temperatures for cooking and sear the meat beforehand.
Use sharp knives and let your roast rest briefly before carving it against the grain. Side dishes are individual, but it's best to choose seasonal vegetables. For the sauce, we can only recommend our secret tip.
Still unsure about the preparation? Check out our video guide here, where we explain all the steps with pictures.
