Hunting Recipes

Kenny's Backstrap Wrapped in Bacon
By: Kenny Presnell

I was fortunate enough to harvest a nice little buck from the Apalachicola National Forest this past hunting season. I've cooked my meat several different ways. This is one of my favorite venison recipes, and I'd like to share it with you. It's easy to prepare and tastes great.

Ingredients:
deer backstrap
bacon
onion
bell pepper
garlic cloves
fresh rosemary
Portabella mushrooms (if available)
Spices: lemon pepper, seasoned salt, garlic powder, onion powder, Montreal Steak Seasoning, meat tenderizer.

For this hunting recipe, I took the backstrap, and sliced in length-wise in a butterfly fashion. (Do not cut it all the way through.) Place the backstrap over a bed of bacon on aluminum foil in a roasting pan. Then sprinkled spices on the bottom half of the backstrap. Next, I started the layering process. First I placed one stem of fresh rosemary (from our garden) lengthwise of the back-strap. Then I began layering strips of onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Next, fold over the top of the back-strap. You may need to hold it together with toothpicks until you finish adding the rest of your spices to the top of the back-strap. Then you alternate onions and bell pepper strips down the full length of the top of the backstrap. Drape half strips of bacon side-by-side down the width of the backstrap. At which point, you can remove the toothpicks.

Close the foil up and around the backstrap making a tent with a wide base. Then close the foil at the top and ends. You want to keep the moisture and juices inside the foil. Finally, place the backstrap in the oven and bake at 250 degrees for at least 1 hour. Then check with a meat thermometer for an internal temperature of at least 155 degrees. Once the meat gets to this temperature, open the foil tent and change your oven to broil to allow the bacon to finish browning.

Remove from oven and place in a serving dish. Pour the juice over the top. Now you’re ready to enjoy the best backstrap you’ve ever tasted!

NOTE: These were the preferred seasonings that I had on hand at the time. As with most recipes, seasonings should be used that you prefer and in the amounts that you prefer. Because what makes a dish taste good to you is when it contains the ingredients that you like.

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