How To Velvet Venison

Who doesn’t love tender, juicy meat? However, this is sometimes hard to achieve with venison due to the lack of fat.

Enter velveting, the foolproof way to give you tender venison straight of the wok.

What is Velveting

Velveting is a technique originating from China to tenderize meat quickly for stir fry and other fast-cooked dishes.

For all wants and purposes, velveting is a form of tenderizing meat really fast.

Why Velvet Venison

How To Velvet Venison

Although you can velvet almost any meat, I find it works particularly well for venison.

In China, velveting is most commonly used for beef, pork, and sometimes chicken. 

It’s rarely used for venison. However, I find it works better with venison than most other meats.

Venison gets a bad rap for being tough, chewy, and dry. I get this. Venison is much more difficult to work with than beef.

Beef is usually more forgiving because it is marbled with fat; this helps the meat with moisture retention and tenderness.

Conversely, venison doesn’t have this fat, so it’s quick to dry out. On top of this, deer use their muscles much more than cattle, making the meat considerably tougher than beef.

With velveting, we can turn most cuts of venison into tender pieces suitable for stirfry.

I often like to use prime cuts like the backstrap or even the tenderloin for stir fry.

However, to test this technique, I tested a few other cuts, such as the hind quarter and shoulder cuts, and it works equally as well with prime and non-prime cuts.

I will say it only works on cuts without excess fat and definitely no silver skin.

How to Velvet Venison

While there are a few methods to velvet meat, the best and simplest involve using cornstarch or baking soda.

The Science:

One reason why I like velveting so much is that it does for venison what fat does for beef; it helps retain moisture.

The coating of the starch on the outside creates a hydrated layer that lubricates and helps prevent the meat from drying out.

If you opt for baking soda, it works a little differently. Baking soda is alkaline, which means it denatures the meat making it more tender.

The Steps: Cornstarch

How To Velvet Venison

Choose whichever cut of meat you like; I can confirm it works with every cut.

  1. Slice the venison thinly as you would for a stirfry. 
  2. Pat the meat dry and place it into a bowl.
  3. Mix the cornstarch with water at a 2:1 ratio. 2x water to 1x cornstarch. Allow one tablespoon of cornstarch for 1lb of meat
  4. Add other ingredients for the marinade, such as soy sauce, salt, sugar, etc.
  5. Set the meat aside for 20-30 minutes.
  6. Rinse the meat to remove all cornstarch and pat dry
  7. Use the venison in your stirfry or other dishes by passing through some very hot oil or water.

The Steps: Baking Soda

  1. Slice the venison thinly as you would for a stirfry. 
  2. Pat the meat dry and place it into a bowl.
  3. Sprinkle over baking soda and toss. Allow 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda for 1lb of meat.
  4. Set the meat aside for 20-30 minutes.
  5. Rinse the meat to remove all baking soda and pat dry
  6. Use the venison in your stirfry or other dishes by passing through some very hot oil or water.

Final Thoughts

Although velveting wasn’t invented for venison and is very rarely used, I find it an invaluable technique for wild game.

While velveting is most commonly used for stir fry, you can also use it for soups, stews, deep-fried venison, etc.

You could also use this with other types of wild game, such as hogs, upland birds, sheep, etc.

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