Venison Steak For Dinner

Venison. 

 Just saying the word makes my mouth water.

  Venison is our favorite meat, and happens to be the meat we fairly live off of. 

 It always perplexes me when folks get a deer, then go to the work of butchering it,

then it sits in the freezer all winter while they buy meat at the store to feed their family.

  We LOVE venison!

  Our family brings in 5 or 6 deer a season,

 keeping us in meat so that we may eat venison three times a week, rarely having beef.

After living this way for years and years our kids think beef is weird. 

 They say it has a funny taste to it. 

(smile)

Although I interchange  ground venison for ground beef in any recipe,

(and guests never know)

 there are a few special recipes in which we especially love our venison. 

 On the top of the list is something we call "Schaffer Steak".  

You see, years ago Mr and Mrs Schaffer came over to our house one night,

 bringing dinner in a great big covered dish. 

 This was his steak recipe, served over mashed potatoes. 

 Everyone loved it, and it became a family favorite.

It is really the simplest of recipes,

 the kind grandma used to make, now  largely forgotten in our complex culture of "fine food."

Although you sure could make this with beef steak, 

please, Oh please, don't waste your good venison...get it out of the freezer and try this!

Schaffer Steak

1. Get a skillet good and hot, then sear your steaks on both sides,

adding salt and pepper as they briefly cook. 

 2. Once seared, put them in a heavy covered dish, like a dutch oven, or your crock pot.

These happen to be backstrap, a very tender boneless medallion steak.

3. Next, make a cream sauce in the skillet using the steak drippings. 

 A cream sauce is simply an equal portion of butter to flour,

 then milk added to make it the desired thickness, 

all over a medium heat, then seasoned to taste. 

 Or, if you like, you can just use a few cans of cream of mushroom soup.

4. Pour the cream sauce over the meat and cook slowly for three or more hours.

The meat will be very tender, the kind you can cut with a fork. 

The meat and gravy is great over veggies, potatoes, or noodles.

The children are just coming in from outside and asking what's for dinner...

"MMMMM smells GOOD!!!"  they say.

  "It is Schaffer Steak," I reply. 

 Shouts of hurrahs and hugs abound...I am not kidding...

it is that good...

...and we really like our venison.

Blessings, 

Julianne