Up next in 10
On this edition of Outdoor Journal Radio's Eating Wild, Chef Antonio Meleca is in the kitchen to walk you through one of his favourite ways to prepare ground venison - Gourmet Venison Sliders!
To hear more from Chef Antonio, check him out on the Eating Wild podcast!
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:12
welcome everybody back to Gourmet
0:14
crafting catering this is the home of
0:16
the eating wild podcast team I am your
0:18
host Antonio smash Mala I'm excited to
0:20
bring you guys something that a lot of
0:22
people have been emailing us about and
0:24
I'm going to make this very very simple
0:26
and I know a lot of you Hunters out
0:28
there have been trying to do something
0:29
like this and I'm going to make it so
0:31
easy for you that I'm going to tell you
0:33
right now you're going to blow the whole
0:34
hunt camp away with these few simple
0:36
steps we are making fresh venison
0:39
sliders I love to incorporate fat when
0:42
I'm doing my venison venison is very
0:44
lean so good thing is we're going to
0:46
incorporate a fat product to our venison
0:50
today I am using pork um the reason why
0:53
I'm using pork because one it's my
0:54
favorite it's my favorite cut of meat
0:56
and my favorite fat to eat and two it's
0:58
going to incorporate some really really
1:00
good flavors to the venison today we're
1:02
going to do something out of the box
1:03
we're going to do sliders I want
1:05
everyone at home to to have fun with
1:07
this and this is why we're here today so
1:09
we're going to go over the simple
1:10
ingredients here you're going to see
1:12
here this is from the buck that I shot
1:15
um uh last year but here's the thing the
1:18
best part the the reward that you get
1:21
when it comes to hunting is the Harvest
1:24
if you're going to take the time if
1:25
you're going to take all the time spend
1:27
all the money and get the best gear you
1:30
possibly can um take time out of your
1:32
personal life spend the time to live on
1:35
that land and harvest please take the
1:38
time to prepare it because you are
1:40
putting like I said you're putting all
1:41
this money all this time into the hunt
1:43
itself well here to me is the reward I'm
1:45
going to say that we're doing about 25%
1:48
pork
1:49
75% uh when you're looking at the ratios
1:52
uh from meat and fat and uh so I just
1:54
have some simple ground pork you can see
1:56
the difference in color and um the
1:59
difference in color and you could
2:00
actually see the fat inside the pork and
2:03
that's really really important when
2:04
you're making burgers or actually
2:06
cooking over a grill a lot of people
2:08
think that when you're grilling meat you
2:10
get the best flavors yes you get the
2:12
best flavors because you have an open
2:14
flame here's the thing Open Flame
2:16
cooking your fat is dripping you're
2:18
losing all the fat a lot of people when
2:20
they're making Burgers they're on the
2:22
flat top they're searing reason being is
2:25
that sear is going to hold that fat
2:26
you're going to see all the liquid on
2:28
your Blackstone around the burger and
2:30
that's where you get all the flavor so
2:33
what we're doing is we are going to do
2:34
Open Flame cooking but we're going to
2:36
finish it in the oven and we're going to
2:38
incorporate Bree cheese we're going to
2:40
incorporate some Dijon honey grain
2:43
mustard and we're going to we're going
2:44
to put the secret ingredient guys and
2:46
this is going to be Craigs homemade
2:48
onion Jam it's going to put our venison
2:50
sliders over the top let's get cracking
2:53
I want to show you guys how to make this
2:54
real quick
2:56
[Music]
3:00
I got my beautiful buck that I popped
3:03
that named him Johnny okay Johnny's
3:04
going inside the bowl again we're using
3:06
a 7525 ratios here fired in you got your
3:10
fat you got your beautiful pork again
3:12
you can use whatever you want some
3:14
people like to use wagu I mean if you're
3:16
L and you got lots of dough you're going
3:17
to want to use wagu but I don't have as
3:19
much dough as l so we're going with pork
3:21
and I'll be honest with you I could
3:22
smell it already look at the color of
3:24
this Johnny you did me well and uh I'm
3:27
excited to cook you up for the boys Okay
3:29
so you have your ratios here you got
3:31
your venison you got your pork all I'm
3:32
doing is I'm incorporating it together
3:35
and I'm not binding any of the
3:36
ingredients yet I just want to fold this
3:38
with my hands get your hands dirty and
3:40
break it apart you can see when you're
3:43
incorporating it together the colors
3:46
kind of come together and you got this
3:48
really nice pink color you can see the
3:50
fat from the pork this is enough this is
3:53
enough meat here to make tons of Sliders
3:55
and that's why it's so cool to do
3:56
sliders because you can make so many of
3:57
them I could eat 10 myself simple thing
4:00
one egg I would do one egg if you're
4:02
going to be doing a
4:04
lot uh of venison obviously you're going
4:06
to want to incorporate more eggs this is
4:08
about I'd say about 3 lb 3 lbs of meat
4:11
total one egg is all you're going to
4:13
need and I'm going to tell you why a lot
4:15
of people add too many too much eggs it
4:17
becomes pasty and you lose a lot of that
4:20
real meaty texture when you are mixing
4:23
your meat so I got one beautiful egg I'm
4:25
going to fold it through with my hands
4:28
before we add any more ele elements
4:30
adding all the elements together is
4:31
going to screw this up and I'll tell you
4:33
why because you need a chance for
4:35
everything to go through evenly and when
4:39
you put everything in at once and you
4:40
don't mix it properly you're going to
4:42
bite into your burger and you're going
4:44
to have a one big chunk of cheese
4:45
because you didn't mix it properly now
4:47
what we're going to do seasoned
4:49
breadcrumbs you can buy regular
4:50
breadcrumbs pinkle breadcrumbs as much
4:52
as you want it's like seasoning with
4:54
salt okay you don't want to overseason 2
4:56
tablespoons that's about it again I'm
4:59
going to take my time I'm going to
5:00
incorporate these breadcrumbs very
5:02
important seasoning salt 2 tablespoons
5:05
you don't want it to be not seasoned at
5:07
all take the time incorporate the salt
5:09
properly picino cheese I'm Italian I got
5:12
a problem I eat cheese with everything
5:14
okay the picino cheese is also going to
5:16
add a really really nice saltiness to
5:20
your venison 2 tablespoons all you need
5:22
now you can use parmesan you can use
5:24
cheddar you could use smoked cheese if
5:26
you want age cheddar Applewood smoked
5:29
whatever you want last ingredient I got
5:31
to tell you guys I'm excited about this
5:33
one this is the eating Wild chimy Cherry
5:36
this has all the ingredients that you
5:38
need when you are cooking at home it is
5:40
quite strong but you can see look at
5:43
that beautiful different spices I'm not
5:45
going to tell you what's in it because
5:46
you have to purchase it you're going to
5:48
call me up you say smash send me some of
5:49
that chimmy cherry and I'll tell you
5:51
what you'll be able to figure it out
5:52
soon as you open it up and you put it on
5:54
your burger put it on your steak on your
5:56
taco on your fish it goes on everything
5:59
and you can see it almost looks like a
6:00
dough ball you know it's already come
6:03
together look at that beautiful you can
6:05
let this rest inside your fridge for
6:07
about a half an hour all that's going to
6:09
do is it's going to incorporate the
6:10
spices it's going to hold it all
6:12
together we're going to start forming in
6:13
about a half an hour guys we'll be right
6:17
back one thing I will say before you
6:20
take it to the grill put some parchment
6:22
paper down or some non-stick spray is
6:24
super important because I will tell you
6:26
this this meat is very very sticky okay
6:29
you've seen us incorporate all those
6:30
different ingredients this is very very
6:33
very sticky we're going to do about 2 oz
6:35
okay we're doing sliders we're not doing
6:37
full Burgers if you guys wanted to do a
6:39
full Burger you can obviously go 8 oz
6:42
you can go 10 o you can do whatever you
6:44
want so right here we're forming a 2 oz
6:47
slider and when you get your buns at
6:49
your local grocery store you could
6:51
almost for form the burger the same size
6:52
of the bun the last thing you want to do
6:55
is get a burger you make a nice 2 oz
6:57
Burger and then you have like a 3 oz bu
7:00
you'll lose it it looks like crap you
7:02
don't want to make them too thin I've
7:03
watched guys on YouTube roll them out
7:05
with like like rolling pins and Ziplock
7:09
bags are you nuts like that's insane you
7:12
are absolutely losing the juice look how
7:14
easy this is every I can see all the
7:16
spices the egg look at that it's forming
7:20
perfectly all we're going to do is
7:22
simply sear these off on the barbecue I
7:24
don't want to lose too much of the fat
7:26
again when you're cooking Open Flame
7:27
cooking you're losing all the fat you
7:30
know sure why do you think you see those
7:31
Flames coming up listen I love the
7:33
barbecue it's one of my favorite things
7:35
to cook on this particular animal I'll
7:37
tell you right now is very lean everyone
7:40
knows this and uh you know you keep that
7:42
over an open flame and I'll tell you
7:44
right now you're probably most likely
7:45
going to dry it out and that's where
7:47
people make a big mistake now I'm not
7:49
telling you to stay away from the
7:51
barbecue when it comes to your venison
7:53
your steaks your tenderloin all that
7:55
stuff is all beautiful on there you
7:56
could smoke it you know but in this case
7:58
we're going to get the present
7:59
presentation like the grill and I'll
8:01
tell you right now people are mind are
8:02
going to be blown it's going to be
8:04
awesome come right back we're going to
8:05
finish these
8:05
[Music]
8:08
off okay guys so listen very important
8:11
get your grill piping piping hot okay
8:14
and again you have your venison sliders
8:16
that we formed all we're going to do is
8:18
you're going to get some simple cross
8:20
grill marks on them just like this get
8:23
them sit them down this onion Jam's been
8:25
going for about 6 hours okay and you can
8:29
see
8:30
this is Craig's recipe it's caramelized
8:32
onions with red currants red wine a
8:35
little bit of vinegar fresh thyme lemon
8:38
juice you let it go and I'm going to
8:40
tell you this right now this on top of
8:42
those sliders people are going to go in
8:45
sane look at that this is perfect turn
8:49
them now we're going to finish it in the
8:51
oven it's locking those juices in right
8:53
now we got high heat pan searing would
8:56
do the same thing okay and you can see
8:58
this look at this like I said to you
9:00
before when you see the flame that means
9:02
those juices are going right through
9:03
your grill that's what's creating the
9:05
flame you want those juices in your
9:07
mouth you don't want those juices on the
9:10
grill simply take them off get them into
9:13
your oven 8 to 12 minutes depending on
9:15
how good your oven is we're going to
9:17
pull these out and we're going to Plate
9:18
[Music]
9:20
them okay guys so the Burger is about a
9:22
minute away it's been in for about 8
9:24
minutes me personally I love to have my
9:27
burger medium rare but I know here in on
9:29
Arial some people have something to say
9:31
about that I don't even think it's legal
9:33
to be honest you go to the States you go
9:34
in Texas they say how do you like your
9:36
burger sir medium rare that's me today
9:38
we're cooking our Burger our meat right
9:40
through um here's what we're
9:42
incorporating into our sliders today
9:45
guys double Bree cheese this is going to
9:48
be so creamy I'm going to tell you right
9:50
now it's going to set your burger apart
9:53
for our Burger we're going to get our
9:54
buns cut okay this is what we're going
9:57
to do we're going to do Dijon grainy
10:00
mustard on the top look at that right
10:03
there and Dijon grainy mustard has a
10:05
nice little peppery kick to it as well
10:07
don't be shy with your onion Jam I'll
10:09
tell you right now it's going to what's
10:11
going to separate your burger from
10:14
everyone else's we're going to lay it on
10:15
the bottom like this for that Venice and
10:17
the sit on okay very important thing
10:20
right now folks we're going to pull that
10:21
burger meat on I want to get that breed
10:23
cheese on it as soon as possible so it
10:26
melts look at how beautiful these things
10:28
are they're like meatballs and when I
10:30
touched them I could see the juices
10:32
coming out of them look at that oh my
10:34
Lord and we're actually gonna let these
10:37
venison burgers or these
10:39
sliders rest while the Bree rests with
10:42
it I'm going to tell you right now give
10:44
this about 3 to four minutes I'm going
10:46
to prep the rest of these buns you guys
10:48
are going to see the final presentation
10:50
T minus 30
10:54
seconds okay folks listen this is the
10:56
best part this is the most rewarding
10:58
part you could see that the venison
11:00
sliders have rested with that Bree on
11:02
top look at this are you nuts look how
11:05
look at the juices just dropping out
11:08
okay you're going to set these on top of
11:10
your onion Jam like this okay and the
11:13
reason why I like using Bri like I said
11:15
you get that really really creamy
11:17
texture look at that you can throw
11:19
pickles in here if you want you can
11:21
throw a little bit of Big Mac sauce if
11:23
you want to make venison Big Macs which
11:24
would be a really cool podcast but look
11:26
at that you're telling me you're going
11:28
to go to the hunt camp and the boys
11:30
aren't going to lose their mind when
11:31
they sink into one of these babies the
11:34
best part is right now we're going to
11:35
cut into one of these oh my God look at
11:38
that are you crazy look at the juices
11:42
the juices are
11:47
popping this is a smash mea we're
11:49
checking out of here thanks for tuning
11:51
in to the eating wild Channel we got the
11:54
venison sliders people are going to lose
11:56
their mouth I'm losing my mouth I can't
11:58
even speak properly simple recipe we're
12:01
going to post it on the fishing Canada
12:02
website get dirty get going I'm going to
12:04
tell you right now you're blowing Minds
12:06
ciao
#Cooking & Recipes
#BBQ & Grilling
#Meat & Seafood
#Jams, Jellies & Preserves