It’s pumpkin time and you may be savoring your first venison harvest of the year. Prior to the rut, venison is devoid of mating hormones, and many say it tastes better. So what better time to prepare a venison-based meal? Here are five great venison recipes that go well with pumpkin pie, pumpkin beer, pumpkin anything!
And before getting to the delicious details, it might interest you to know that deer like eating pumpkins. I have a friend who buys a truckload of them and puts them outside in early November. “The deer won’t eat them for about two weeks,” he says. “When they get soft, deer can’t seem to get enough, and they keep coming back for more in my hunting area.” Whether you feed pumpkins or just want compatible recipes, check out this post from Grand View Outdoors.
If you do things like leave your house or hop on the Internet, you’ve probably noticed that pretty much anything can be made better with the addition of a little “pumpkin spice” flavoring. Pumpkin spice has become the epitome of fall flavors. The Pumpkin Spice latte from Starbucks (otherwise known as Product Zero in the pumpkin spice craze) blends “notes of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove,” according to the Starbucks website. It also has its own Twitter feed, making this drink more adept at social media than I am.
And it’s such a critical part of American cultural identity that when Hillary Clinton recently confessed that she no longer drinks Pumpkin Spice lattes because she “saw how many calories are in them,” her “anti-pumpkin-spice stance” made national headlines. But at the heart of the Pumpkin Spice latte is the humble pumpkin. This North American native is full of enough Vitamin A, beta-carotene, fiber and Vitamin C to make Dr. Oz’s heart go pitter-patter. And while most of us consume pumpkin only in pie form, pumpkin becomes main-course worthy when paired with another fall harvest staple: venison.
So embrace the pumpkin spice craze this year by serving up one of these autumnal dishes.
1. Venison Pumpkin Curry
This recipe from Field & Stream certainly answers the call for pumpkin “spice.” Habanero chile and some curry powder take the flavors up a notch, while a lengthy cooking time makes for more tender venison. [continued]
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