I wish I had some fancy camera to capture this for you instead of my phone camera.

No recipe with this one today, just a picture and an exhortation: Go kill yourself a deer. Or, if you find all of your fall weekends occupied with debate tournaments – quit laughing, I’m giving back to the community – find yourself some family and friends with a surplus of this tasty critter in their freezer. This particular chunk of bambi came from my cousin Suzi and her wonderful, generous husband Ben. Now, if you take this latter option you will occasionally have to improvise your meal based on what cut of meat you get. If all you know how to do is make venison steaks you might be SOL when you end up with sausages or a roast. Luckily, all venison tastes amazing as long as you don’t overcook it.

This time I lucked out and got a package of venison tenderloin. Tenderloin! Maybe the best cut of meat on the whole animal! Quick side note – This is an uncomfortable fact that most hunters don’t share with people who eat venison but don’t want to hear about where it came from: the younger the deer, the better the meat. You can definitely tell the difference between a young buck with his first pair of velvet antlers and an old grizzled bastard that’s been dodging bullets since the last days of the Clinton presidency. Not saying you should only aim for fawns with spots, but it is a fact nonetheless. Back to the meat – if you should be lucky enough to get some tenderloin, keep it simple. This was rubbed with some sea salt, olive oil, fresh cracked black pepper, and chili powder. Cooked over some roaring hardwood charcoal, it develops a fantastic crust on the outside while staying tender and juicy in the middle.

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