Venison Gyros

[pontiac]

I have been thinking about trying to make this for a while now. I basically used a recipe from Alton Brown of Good Eats TV show, but used straight venison.

http://www.food.com/recipe/alton-browns-gyro-meat-recipe-344915

I have trouble sticking to an exact recipe, and added Greek Oregano to the mix.

Not having a rotisserie or spit to work with, just baked it in oven in bread loaf pans and then sliced it thin and browned it in a hot pan with a little olive oil.

It had a great flavor, but being so lean it was a little dry. The tatziki sauce was great with it on flat bread. Next time, I may add more grated onion and maybe some beef or some type of fat.

I will try to remember to take picture of the leftovers tonight.

[pontiac]

Here is a picture.

[tx07]

I didn't know they make " gyros" for venison

Ok that looks good and just made me hungry!

[HoustonHunter94]

I WILL be doing this one soon. Thanks for the idea! I love Greek food, didn't even think out doing venison gyros...

[Hillary]

I dig this idea.
I bet adding some more olive oil, melted butter or even subing some pork in the mix might work to cure the dryness
I definately will try this!
Great idea!

[HoustonHunter94]

I made these this past week, turned out freakin great! Thanks for the idea...

[pontiac]

Good Deal, glad you enjoyed it. Did you happen to add any kind of fat or just go with 100% venison?

I have another family member requesting we make this again, so I was curious.

Chris

[bmac]

I just printed out the recipe and it is on the list for dinner this week.

Thanks for sharing

[HoustonHunter94]

Good Deal, glad you enjoyed it. Did you happen to add any kind of fat or just go with 100% venison?

I have another family member requesting we make this again, so I was curious.

Chris

I grind my own deer and usually add somewhere to 10-15% brisket so I didn't have much of a problem with it drying out. You might just add a little olive oil to your mixture before you put it on the pan. It was really good, definitely on the list again in the future.

[lukeaaron]

looks good

[TC]

I normally add diced bacon to my venison to keep it from drying out.... Looks great btw....

[Raypo]

that looks good

[Texpppr]

There isn't any decent greek food in the area I live. One thing I liked about living in Houston. The variety of food choices.

[HoustonHunter94]

Making these again tonight, great stuff.

[SMOOTHboar]

Best thing to do is to add fat in long strips near the middle so that it will render through the meat. Also, a high quality binder will help hold any juices and slow the shrinkage down. As the meat heats up, the cell structure ruptures and releases it's juices. Venison does this much faster than beef for two reasons. 1. It's leaner 2. The cellular structure of the meat. You see the protein in beef is assembled kinda like a bunch of interlocking boxes. Where as venison is more like a stack of short boards un-neatly stacked and layered. Thus you gotta treat it a bit different than beef.

Also, if you will let the ground meat drain for about a day, you will get a better bind and mouth feel. Venison blood coagulates extremely fast. When you bake it in a dry heat method such as the one you mentioned then the albumin and proteins in the remaining blood will seize and give you a chalk like feel in the mouth. Hope this helps.