Make your next gathering Old School FUN with Venison Sloppy Joe’s
This old school stand-by can still bring smiles to your dining room table. In today’s cyber world of endless culinary expertise and ANY recipe or concept at your fingertips with the click of a button gets many people excited but sometimes going backwards is a leap forward.
I grew up on block populated with no less than 50 kids between the ages of 4 and 16. I recall many times many of these kids would just appear at our house to play baseball, football, soccer you name it. And my mother, being my mother, she would make sure everyone was well served. She could take a 3-pound bag of ground beef and turn it into enough Sloppy Joe’s for the whole flock of us. Now, if she only had a bag full of ground venison then we REALLY would have been living!
In fact many years latter when I was the Chef for the Hunt Fish Feed Program this was my signature dish that I served to thousands of homeless people all over the country. We made MANY new friends over the years with this dish :)
This kind of comfort food really brings back the memories that lets you know just how lucky you were.
VENISON Sloppy Joe’s
(You can also use elk, bison, moose, antelope, bear, ducks, geese or really any other meat that you might have in your freezer)
5 pounds ground venison (drained of all the excess capillary blood*)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Splash of vegetable oil
1lbs. onions, diced
2 bell peppers, diced
1 bunch celery, diced fine
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp grainy mustard
6 oz ketchup
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 # 10 can tomato sauce or diced tomatoes
1 pack WildEats Controlled Burn Chili Blend
hamburger buns
Procedure:
*Three days before you want to prepare your sloppy Joe’s remove the ground venison from your freezer. Place it in the refrigerator and allow it to defrost slowly. It should take a couple of days. Once defrosted remove it from the package and place it into a colander. Place that colander in a bowl, cover the meat with clear wrap and return it to the refrigerator. Allow the ground venison to drain overnight. (5 lbs. of ground venison will yield nearly 2 cups of motor thick capillary blood. Turning that dark eggplant colored meat to a light pink - almost veal-like)
This small step is the difference between getting uhhh’s and ahhh’s and unfinished plates. It’s this capillary blood in your ground venison that gives the aggressive gamey or liver flavor. It’s as simples as draining the excess blood – (Not adding some culinary ban-aide). This removes the “gamey” flavor - yielding a delicate flavor that even a 10-year-old would approve of and is the way to get your wild game burgers to stick together! But that’s for another article
Once your venison is defrosted and drained of the excess blood heat up a heavy gauge pot, season your meat and add some oil to the pan. Once the pan is hot place a layer of the meat in the pot and brown it, don’t overload your pot. Remove the browned meat and repeat with the remaining meat. Once all the meat is browned add the diced vegetables, stir to incorporate. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a slow boil, turn down the heat and simmer gently until the sauce thickens, about 60 – 90 minutes. Adjust the seasonings to your taste and you’re ready to feed the flock.
At this point you can serve it or hold until you’re ready. This type of dish can easily be made hours or even days ahead of when you want to serve it - and, be better the next day.
Making an even larger batch and storing it in zip-lock bags in your freezer will have you ready for when your neighborhood converges on your house to make those memories we still dream of.
This technique for removing the excess blood should be applied to any recipe that has ground wild game meat. The difference is simply amazing. You will thank me.
Cheers
Chef John McGannon
WildEats Enterprises
Since 1995
