This coming Saturday, October 5, is the opening day of the Pennsylvania archery season. For bear hunters, your first opportunity this year will be the statewide archery season that runs from October 19 to November 9. The best way to ensure that the venison or bear meat that you will serve your family and friends for supper is as flavorful as possible is to take only a well placed shot, do a thorough and clean job of field dressing and cool down the meat as quickly as possible. More often than not, if someone says they just don’t like the taste of venison or bear meat, then one or more of those steps were not followed. Assuming that you took all the right precautions, and you have received a variety of cuts from the butcher, let’s look at some ways to prepare some mouth-watering meals.

Venison Chili

One of the absolute favorites within my family, especially now with the cooler, crisp fall weather, is venison chili. It is not difficult to make and lends itself to changing up the ingredients to suit your family’s preferences. I begin by selecting the largest soup pot available — in the 16-20 quart range. Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:
• 3 # venison burger
• 2 large cans chicken broth (or beef broth) & 2 large cans of red kidney beans
• 2 large cans diced tomatoes (I also add a quart of my canned stewed tomatoes)
• 2 large sweet onions, 2 red or green bell peppers and 7-8 stalks of celery — all diced – and a one pound pack of sliced mushrooms.

Directions:

Combine the cans of broth, beans and tomatoes in the soup pot and bring ingredients to a gentle boil. In a cast iron skillet, brown the venison burger and add it to the pot.

Chop or dice the onions, peppers and celery and add to the pot along with the mushrooms. Add chili powder and then salt and pepper to taste. Consider adding minced garlic, chopped parsley or cilantro. Allow all ingredients to simmer for at least one hour. When serving, add parsley or cilantro as a garnish.

What is not consumed over the next few days can be frozen in quart containers and will make a quick and delicious meal for months to come.

Bear Chili

Bear Chili can be just as tasty as the Venison Chili that most of us are used to. Follow the recipe for Venison Chili, and just substitute ground bear meat for the venison. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Bacon-wrapped Venison Jalapeño Poppers

For a small picnic with just a few friends, or for a family reunion with dozens in attendance, folks will stand in line for this fun to make and fun to eat appetizer. As always, bacon wrapped around this mouth-watering morsel makes it taste even better!

Ingredients:
• One pound of venison — tenderloin or backstrap is preferred.
• A half a pack of bacon (cut slices of bacon in half)
• Cream cheese
• 6 jalapeño peppers
• one large sweet onion
• Italian dressing (here, I prefer Gazebo Room Greek dressing)

Directions:

Begin by cutting the venison into 3/4” cubes and slice the bacon strips in half. Slice the jalapeños, and then slice the onion layers into 3/4” squares.

On the bacon strips, stack the venison cube, a slice of jalapeño and a slice of onion — topped with a swipe of cream cheese on the onion slice.

Wrap the bacon strip around the ingredients and insert a toothpick (toothpicks should be previously soaked in water).
Place the poppers in a container and add the Italian or Greek dressing along with your favorite marinade and let them rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Grill over medium heat until bacon is done. Enjoy. (I promise you — you will…!)

Venison Steak

High in protein, low in cholesterol and pleasing to the palate — especially cooked over a wood fire — a venison steak is simply hard to beat. But, there are two tricks to having it turn out to be a crowd-pleasing entre. A light coating of Italian dressing (or, you guessed it, Gazebo Room Greek dressing) will keep the meat from sticking to the hot grate and will not detract from the superb taste. Secondly, and most importantly, do NOT overcook venison. For the flavor of venison to be at its maximum, it should be cooked to medium-rare or medium and served at that level. Any venison cooked beyond medium (toward well-done) becomes tougher and less flavorful.

I hope you will try these recipes and discover that both venison and bear meats are not just healthy meats, but also extremely tasty table fare as well.