ROMANIAN STYLE DRIED VENISON LOIN

Photo by Larry White

The art of charcuterie ranges in all levels of difficulty. While I like to experiment and make things the average person deems too hands on and time consuming, I also love simple recipes like this one.

Roughly all that you need is a venison loin, red wine, a few seasonings and some resting time in your refrigerator. In all, the meat takes between 8 to 13 days until it is ready to be consumed, but the physical labor needed is only about 20 minutes.

Cooks Notes:

• The red wine soaking time will depend on the size of the loin that you're using. For elk loins, I recommend soaking them for 8 days. For whitetail loins, 3 to 5 days will suffice.

• You can slice thin and plate it like you would carpaccio.

• For simplicity it's great with just toasted bread and some good mustard.

• One of my favorite ways to enjoy this is with goats cheese, toasted nuts and fresh ripe figs or blueberries drizzled with some good olive oil.

• Adding fresh cracked black pepper and flaked sea salt enhance the flavors quite a bit.

INGREDIENTS

• cheese cloth (as needed)

• butchers twine (as needed)

• 1 lb - venison loin, silver-skin removed

• 2 cups dry red wine (or as needed)

• 23 grams - kosher salt

• 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon - red pepper flakes

• 1 sprig rosemary

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 bay leaf

• 5 grams - instacure #2

DIRECTIONS

1. Trim the venison loin of all silver-skin and place in a deep container.

2. In a large bowl combine the remaining ingredients and stir until the salt has dissolved.

3. Pour the mixture over the loin. Add more wine if needed to cover the meat entirely. Place a plate or another food safe non-porous item on top of the meat to keep it submerged. Cover the container with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 to 8 days as stated in the notes.

4. Turn the loin over once per day during the marinating process.

5. Remove the meat from the marinade and dry off with paper towels. Wrap the loin tightly with cheese cloth and secure each end with butchers twine. The tighter you can get the cheese cloth around the meat, the more uniform the shape will be after the hanging process.

6. Hang in your refrigerator for 5 days with plenty of space around it to allow for air flow. If you have a cold basement that you don't have heat pumping into, you can hang it there as well. I would place a fan on low speed in front of it to ensure thorough drying. Placing a fan in your refrigerator will aid in drying as well.

7. For serving, slice as thinly as possible. Store the meat in the refrigerator until needed.