Hunting season is here and this hub is about cooking deer meat (something about the size of a hind quarter or bigger). I know this may be squeemish to some of you folks, and vegitarians won't like it at all, but deer meat otherwise known as venison is some of the best tasting meat in the world. The secret to cooking good deer meat is in the marinating. If you want good tasting venison, you must marinate the meat 24 hrs before cooking. Vinegar in my opinion is best. Some folks use Sprite, or salt water (brine), it all depends on your taste. Marinating takes the wild taste out of it (which most people don't like).

Cooking great venison takes a lot of work. The first thing you'll need to do is have a big, big pile of wood for your bonfire as you'll need enough wood for a 12 hour fire, so plan to spend at least half a day with a chainsaw (better if you do this the day before). Next on the list, you'll need to dig a pit about 2 or 3 ft deep and 4 ft. on a side. Size will depend on how much you're cooking. You'll need a piece of steel grating large enough to cover the pit and 4 cinder blocks to lay it on.

Start your bonfire and and wait till you get a lot of red hot coals at the bottom of the fire. Begin shoveling coals into the pit and place your meat on the grating over the pit. Cook the meat for 12 hrs turning it about every 30 min. or so while adding fresh coals when they start to die down. It'll take you all day but the end result will be a taste of pure heaven.

This is how its done in the deep south. Having a few friends over to help with everything makes for a wonderful weekend party. Enjoy