OK, in my last post I made my Tater and Pasta salad for Memorial day. That is an excellent side dish that goes well with my barbequed mule deer backstrap. The backstrap is the most coveted cut of any game animal. All hunters long for fresh backstrap steaks fried, grilled, or cooked on a stick over an open fire. The backstrap is the king of wild game meat.
The backstrap is simply the tenderloin that runs along the spine of all animals. On pork, this is the cut made into pork chops. I cut off the backstraps and cut them into boneless chops when I butcher a game animal. Backstrap steaks are perfect for any meal, so I had to hide a pack of them so they would survive until Memorial Day.
BBQ Backstrap
Ingredients for marinade:
Make sure the backstraps are thawed. I marinade my backstraps overnight. For my marinade, I start with half of a medium onion finely chopped, 4 – 6 strips of bacon fried to taste and crumbled, 4 – 8 ounces of barbeque sauce, depending on the number and size of the steaks you will be cooking. Add a couple of dashes of seasoning salt, Worcestershire sauce, and two or three drops of liquid smoke. Mix all ingredients well in a large pan. Place the steaks in the pan and make sure they are completely covered. Place in the refrigerator overnight. I am still trying to perfect my own BBQ sauce, so until I do perfect my own recipe, the Bulls-eye Original is the best I have found. This recipe will work with what ever your favorite BBQ sauce is.
After letting the Backstraps marinade overnight in the fridge they are ready for the grill. Before I remove the backstraps from the fridge, I get the grill good and hot. The secret to a good grilled steak is a hot grill. This will sear in the juices and sets the tone for the whole cooking process. I turn the grill up as high as I can to get it heated up good and then turn the heat back down to medium before I begin cooking. Once the grill is hot I get the pan of backstraps out of the fridge and take them to the grill. Carefully remove the backstraps from the pan of marinade and place on the grill. Close the cover and let them cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Flip them over and cook the other side for another 5 to 10 minutes.
With wild game I like to make sure it is well done to guard against any possible bugs or diseases that the animal may have had. When the backstraps are just about done I coat them with a liberal helping of the marinade that they soaked in overnight and let cook 1 or 2 more minutes, then flip them and coat them with marinade again. Serve them with the Tater and Pasta salad, some baked beans and a fresh apple pie and you will not soon forget this Memorial Day.
Clacked by Jeff Love
on May 24, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
