# Venison sushi



## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Anyone else ever tried this? My wife and I had it last night and it was both surprisingly easy and surprisingly good. My wife is fairly adventurous, but when I first suggested the idea to her she made a gag face. After eating it last night she loved it so much that she wants to do it again tonight so I got more backstrap out! 

We made it into nigiri style rolls where the meat simply sits atop a little rice ball as opposed to being rolled up into a wrap which would have made this dish a lot more complicated. I probably lack the delicate touch to do something like that. The nigiri rolls were very simple to do.

Rice: For the rice you will want to use a short grain variety of rice, not a long grain rice. The rice I used was some brand called Kokuho Rose I picked up at the Asian market here in Sandy. The short grain rice is much more absorbent and will clump together better than the long grain. After cooking the rice, let it cool for awhile and do not put it in the refrigerator as this will make the rice become dry and hard. Run your hands under the kitchen sink for a moment before forming the rice balls as this will prevent the grains of rice from sticking to your fingers. Mold the rice into the size and shape that you prefer and that's it! Done!

Venison: Use t-loins or backstrap or other tender cut of meat. The venison we used came from my sister-in-laws baby 2 point from last year. My wife and I were there to assist with the field dressing and butchering so we knew the meat was well taken care of. I probably wouldn't do this dish with meat that I did not process myself or by someone that I could trust to do a good job. It is also recommended that you use meat that has been in the freezer for at least 30 days to kill bacteria. Take backstraps that are about 3/8" thick or so, pat them dry with a paper towel and season them with whatever you wish. We simply used salt and pepper, but some like to add in ground wasabi powder, and you can use anything else you wish as well. Give each side of the meat a hard sear in a hot frying pan. You aren't cooking the meat, just searing the edges so a few seconds on each side is plenty. Cut the meat into very thin strips and place on top of the rice!

Other stuff: You can use a variety of things that are typically used in sushi. At the Asian market I picked up toasted sesame seeds, sriracha mayo, unagi sauce (eel sauce), wasabi, as well as carrots, cucumber, and lemon to cut into small slivers to place on the roll. My wife and I found that we enjoyed the more simplistic rolls the most. Our favorite combination was a small lemon sliver, venison slice, and unagi sauce on the roll. Fantastic! You can get really creative here and use all sorts of different sauces, vegetables, crispy and crunchy things, and what have you.

If you are a sushi aficionado I highly suggest you try this out. You will be surprised at how delicious venison can be in sushi!


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## SidVicious (Aug 19, 2014)

This sounds really interesting! I may try it this weekend. Thanks for sharing!


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Does *freezing* food *kill* unwanted *bacteria* - Answers.com Freezing does not kill all bacteria.Check the link out. Im sure yours is ok, I prefer my wild game very rare, but like you I am aware of the conditions in which it was processed.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Dunkem said:


> Does *freezing* food *kill* unwanted *bacteria* - Answers.com Freezing does not kill all bacteria.Check the link out. Im sure yours is ok, I prefer my wild game very rare, but like you I am aware of the conditions in which it was processed.


Interesting. I think any time we eat raw foods such as sushi, or even beef or venison cooked very rare we are taking somewhat of a chance. I've never gotten sick from uncooked or undercooked meats yet, but like you say, being aware of how it was processed can take a lot of the guesswork out.

One step I forgot to mention in the original post was to pat the meat dry with a paper towel before searing it. Here is a little YouTube tutorial video I watched before doing mine:


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

With red meat, the purpose of the flash sear is to kill the bacteria. Bacteria (typically your concern is E. coli) is on the surfaces of the meat, not inside the muscle tissue. I regularly eat very rare (most would consider it raw) game. As long as the center is room temp I am a pretty happy to chomp away. 

With raw fish preparations you are generally concerned with parasites--and there are methods for killing those via freezing. Depending on the parasite you freeze the fish below certain temperatures for at least so much time. 99% of saltwater parasites are dead after 30 days below 0F, 3-5 days below -10F and if you have access to a -30F you can kill most parasites within hours. 

Wild game can have trichinosis (usually bears/mountain lions/hogs but it has been found rarely in deer). BUT there is only one strain of trichinosis in N. America that isn't killed by a 30 days below 0F, and surprise surprise it is found in Alaska and Canada not in the lower 48. So, while freezing won't kill E. coli or Salmonella it will kill parasites. 


Kudos on the creative use of wild game! I love doing sashimis with my meat. If you have access to a good meat slicer a fun technique is to take a section of backstrap or tenderloin (not steaks, but a 3-6" long section) and season it how you want, then on the grill as hot as you can get it just sear the outside as fast as possible. Let it cool to room temp, wrap in plastic wrap and roll it up as tight as you can into a tube shape. Freeze it solid. Then when you want to use it, take it out of the plastic and slice the frozen seared meat as thin as humanly possible. You can get it much thinner on a slicer when it is frozen than if it were thawed and raw. Place the frozen slices on a room temp plate, drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper, maybe some pickled onions and shaved parmesan. The meat will be thawed within a couple minutes and it is FANTASTIC as an appetizer. Not to mention it looks stunning with that deep purple/red sliced so thin you can see the plate underneath it.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

This looks and sounds great. I'm going to try it.

.


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## SCtransplant (Jul 31, 2015)

Yes, it is awesome. 

Tastes like butter.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Man, that sounds awesome - thanks for sharing!


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

johnnycake said:


> With red meat, the purpose of the flash sear is to kill the bacteria. Bacteria (typically your concern is E. coli) is on the surfaces of the meat, not inside the muscle tissue. I regularly eat very rare (most would consider it raw) game. As long as the center is room temp I am a pretty happy to chomp away.
> 
> With raw fish preparations you are generally concerned with parasites--and there are methods for killing those via freezing. Depending on the parasite you freeze the fish below certain temperatures for at least so much time. 99% of saltwater parasites are dead after 30 days below 0F, 3-5 days below -10F and if you have access to a -30F you can kill most parasites within hours.
> 
> ...


Thanks for pointing out the parasites!! I should have mentioned them. I have seafood lovers that buy halibut and cod and other parasite ridden seafood fresh then take it home and freeze it to kill the little buggers. I tell them I can sell you frozen product other than fresh at a cheaper cost but they insist that the fresh frozen is better than the flash frozen at sea product? Hey the customer is always right?


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Lol, gotta love that type Dunkem! Why prefer to have professionally glazed and flash-frozen fish when you can do it yourself in your upright fridge/freezer that only reaches 10F at which parasites can survive indefinitely?
But they might be like me and have a freezer that reaches -10F...but it is still hard to try to glaze them yourself at home without a mister or dunk tank and drip trays...


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## Dunkem (May 8, 2012)

Years ago I worked in Bountiful at a meat processing plant. We cut all the fish (frozen ) for a seafood company We had big troughs full of water and used bread racks to hold the fish for glazing. Gawd I miss that job!!! I don't even want to think about how many thousands of lbs of ling cod and halibut I cut. >>O (The bone dust out of the saw made great fertilizer though)


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## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

Reading the title of the post gave me stomach cramps, recalling several days of suffering from the salmonella weight loss diet. How about you guys trying this promise to tell us if it turns you into a giant reverse squirt gun?


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Jedidiah said:


> Reading the title of the post gave me stomach cramps, recalling several days of suffering from the salmonella weight loss diet. How about you guys trying this promise to tell us if it turns you into a giant reverse squirt gun?


I'm on my second night in a row of venison sushi and no ill effects yet. Salmonella weight loss diet? I could stand to lose a few pounds. 8)


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